Streaming Is Bright Spot For Viewing NFL

Ratings for the NFL this year haven’t exactly rebounded from last season’s 8% dip through the first several weeks of the season. according to USAToday.

While the audience size has continued on a downward trend, there has been one bright spot: Streaming. While it makes up less than 5% of the audience for NFL games, the number of people streaming games has seen a roughly 25% gain over the same time period last season, according to information provided by NBC, Fox, CBS and ESPN.

“What we have seen is that the walls between (broadcast) TV and digital TV are breaking down,” Campbell Foster, director of product marketing at Adobe Primetime, a division of Adobe that provides analytics to broadcasters, told USAToday Sports. “It will become a meaningless distinction.”

Adobe is the leading provider of the authentication service used by broadcasters. To use many streaming apps provided by broadcasters, you’re required to enter your cable or satellite account. Adobe partnered with The Diffusion Group to study the trends in sports streaming, the results of which were provided to USAToday Sports.

The survey polled 2,000 U.S. consumers in July on their viewing habits to stream sports on any screen-- such as phones, computers and tablets-- as well as on their television via streaming devices like Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku and video game consoles.

The NFL had the most enthusiastic fan base as the the survey found that 48% of the respondents ranked themselves at a 9 or 10. (The 10-point scale started at 1 as “definitely not a fan” to a 10, “a super fan.”)

While broadcast ratings continue to lag, there appears to be no letup in streaming for NFL games. Each TV partner offers apps and, in some cases, their own streaming TV options that don’t require cable or satellite subscriptions.

“Ratings are down, yes,” said Michael Greeson, director of research for The Diffusion Group. “Declines in legacy broadcast television has been too often tied to Nielsen’s ratings, which don’t take into account the viewing of connected devices used by people to watch live sports.”