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Survey: 44% of Cable Subscribers Would Cancel Service if They Could Stream Live Events

Matt Tamanini
Matt is The Streamable's News Editor and resident Ohio State fan. You can find him covering everything from breaking news to streaming comparisons to sporting events. Matt is extremely well-rounded, having worked for the Big Ten Conference, BroadwayWorld, True Crime Obsessed, and Land-Grant Holy Land before joining TS. He cut the cord in 2014, streams with a Fire TV, and his favorite titles include "The Bear," "The Great British Bake Off," "Mrs. Davis," and anything on the Hallmark Channel.
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Matt Tamanini

A survey released on Wednesday by advertising platform Magnite indicates that the ability to view live content, especially sports, is the leading reason that cable subscribers haven’t yet cut the cord. In the survey, 44% of subscribers indicated that they would cancel their cable service if they could access live sports – and other real-time events like breaking news and awards shows – via a streaming service.

According to Magnite, live sports currently accounts for 30% of all Connected TV (CTV) streaming and despite the fact that platforms like YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, and fuboTV allow fans to watch games on demand, 70% of sports viewing is done in real time.

“Historically live sports kept audiences tied to their cable subscriptions,” fuboTV senior vice president Diana Horowitz said in conjunction with the survey. “That’s no longer the case with live sports including marquee events and regional sports networks widely available on CTV platforms like fuboTV. In fact, 90% of our viewers watch fuboTV live and 93% of sports content on fuboTV is viewed live.”

While access to live sporting events has traditionally kept consumers tethered to the more familiar linear and cable TV options, Magnite’s survey indicates that an increasing number of consumers plan on streaming the biggest sporting events of the year.

The NFL, in particular, is an enormous audience draw. In 2021, 75 of the most-watched 100 programs were NFL games. In fact, just five non-sports programs cracked the Top 100: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, the “Equalizer” pilot that followed the Super Bowl, “New Year’s Rockin Eve,” Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, and the post-January 6th Capitol Riot edition of “60 Minutes.” Just yesterday, Paramount+ cited the NFL as its biggest subscription driver in 2021.

On Tuesday, NBCUniversal announced that 6 million people watched Sunday's Super Bowl via streaming while an additional 5.2M also streamed the game as part of a co-watching setup.

While the Big Game brought in a total of 112.1 million viewers across all channels and platforms – including the new co-viewing metric – Magnite’s survey indicates that more people are planning to consume sports via streaming in 2022; 48% of respondents indicated that they planned to stream the Super Bowl, while 47% planned to do the same for the Winter Olympics, which is available via NBC’s various platforms, including Peacock.

Interestingly, half of those surveyed suggested that they were planning to watch the upcoming NCAA men’s basketball tournament via streaming. Games are broadcast on Paramount and Turner networks CBS, TNT, TBS, and TruTV and streamed via Paramount+.

Additionally, the survey indicates that live streaming adoption is becoming more prevalent across all age groups. While millennials (age 26-41) lead the way in terms of subscription percentage at 73%, the other key demos – Gen Z (65%), Gen X (66%), and Baby Boomers (64%) – are streaming live content at essentially same levels.

Presumably the numbers for Gen Z will continue to rise as that population ages, but the retention of those in the older age groups is a sign of the further infiltration of live streaming into the country’s viewing habits.

Matt Tamanini
Matt is The Streamable's News Editor and resident Ohio State fan. You can find him covering everything from breaking news to streaming comparisons to sporting events. Matt is extremely well-rounded, having worked for the Big Ten Conference, BroadwayWorld, True Crime Obsessed, and Land-Grant Holy Land before joining TS. He cut the cord in 2014, streams with a Fire TV, and his favorite titles include "The Bear," "The Great British Bake Off," "Mrs. Davis," and anything on the Hallmark Channel.
Read full bio ›
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