Sports Fans Say They’ll Migrate to Streaming Platforms

Sports are big business on TV: 96 of the top 100 most-watched TV broadcasts last year were sporting events. But there’s a push from streaming services to gain exclusive sports content, and via that effort, new subscribers. 

For example, Peacock’s airing of an NFL wild-card game netted it an estimated 2.8 million new subscribers, reportedly “the single biggest subscriber acquisition moment ever measured.” Indeed, sports fans would be willing to migrate to streaming platforms to watch their favorite sports, according to a report from Hub Research Entertainment.

Among avid fans of various sports (8-10 on a 10-point scale), three-quarters said they would be either very likely (43%) or somewhat likely (32%) to sign up to a new streaming subscription to watch their favorite sport if it was no longer available on broadcast/cable TV.

The sports fans most likely to make the switch are Premier League fans, half (50%) of whom would be very likely to do so and an additional third (32%) somewhat likely. NBA fans would also be highly likely to do so (49% very likely and 33% somewhat likely), as would be NFL fans (49% very likely, 31% somewhat likely).

Recent research shows that 3 in 10 sports media users have subscribed to streaming platforms for exclusive sports content.

What’s the reason for this? For roughly 8 in 10 sports fans surveyed by Hub, content about their favorite sport is either much more (36%) or somewhat more (43%) important than other things they watch.

The report also notes that there could be some downstream impacts of a shift to streaming. That’s because close to one-third (31%) of sports fans say they watch a show they saw promoted when they were watching sports either very often (9%) or often (22%). Additionally, more than one-quarter stay on the same channel after a game to watch a show they weren’t necessarily planning to see either very often (6%) or often (21%).