70% of U.S. sports viewers watch via streaming

Here’s the thing:

Streaming is changing the fabric of TV viewing, and sports are no exception. New data shows just how far American sports fans have embraced streaming.

A recent Parks Associates and InterDigital survey found that 43% of consumers in U.S. internet households identify as sports viewers, 70% of those say they use a streaming service to watch and 33% say they use a sports-specific streamer to watch, such as NFL+, MLB.TV and ESPN+.

Eighty-four percent of sports viewers said that they watch at least one live sports event a week.

Data debrief:

To break the results down further, 40% of sports viewers said they watch sports exclusively using streaming platforms, and 30% said they watch via both streaming platforms and traditional linear TV offerings — for a total of 70% that use streaming to watch sports.

Just 19% said they are a “sports traditionalist,” meaning they exclusively watch sports only via traditional broadcast networks, satellite or cable.

The report says that the sports traditionalist “will continue to account for a smaller share of the sports viewing segment” as sports continue to migrate to streaming.

Why it matters:

As live sports increasingly move to streaming, avid sports fans will become even more valuable consumers.

According to Parks Associates, sports viewers tend to spend more on streaming video platforms than consumers who avoid sports.

“Looking at average spend by sport viewing segment, we see that D2C sports service viewers are the heaviest spenders on streaming video services, spending an average of $111 per month on all streaming subscriptions,” the report said.