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Sports Viewing 2018 SVOD Taking Over?

Alistair Taylor
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20,000-Foot View:  Facing the menacing presence of streaming alternatives, TV networks find themselves under growing pressure to ensure that viewing patterns are strong enough to deliver a return on expensively acquired sports rights. Against this backdrop, sports viewing in            2018 was largely one of stagnation, remaining flat at            while free streaming declined. This combined with the aging demographic profile of regular TV sports viewers underlines the long-term risk attached to the premium value currently afforded to sports in the video landscape. With sports now only ranking as the sixth most desired content genre, its value proposition is decreasing. The notable exception is that sports consumption on TV remains solid in the face of pay-TV cord-cutting, reiterating the short-term value of premium sports rights—inflated or not—for pay-TV operators.

Key Findings

  • Sport is            sixth most popular video content            at            penetration,            points behind the            preferred genre, Comedy
    •            of consumers are willing to pay for sports content as part of a video / TV offering,            points behind those willing to pay to access movies
  • Sports viewing            TV remained flat at            penetration                       2017 to            2018
  • Watching free            sports video fell from            in            to            in            2018
  • The average            of regular TV sports viewers                       while            are male
    •            of sports viewers listen to the radio,            points above the weighted average            of sports viewers use Twitter weekly,            points above the weighted average
  • TV sports            is highest in the US            Australia at            compared to            in           
    •            of cord cutters are regular TV sports viewers

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: AFL, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime, DAZN, Discovery, Eleven Sports, EPL, ESPN+, Euroleague, Facebook, GolfTV, Kayo Sports, La Liga, Ligue            Matchroom Sports, MLB, Netflix, NFL, NRL, PGA, Spotify, Twitter, UEFA