Fans of professional sports are more open to the idea of watching their favorite teams and competitions on streaming video platforms, but they still feel that broadcast television networks do the best job, according to a new survey.
This week, Hub Entertainment Research released a new report called “What’s the Score: The Evolution of Sports Media,” which lands at a time when more sports are shifting from traditional TV channels to streaming video platforms, particularly in the United States.
According to the report, 24 percent of sports fans surveyed said they felt broadcast TV networks offer the best presentation for live sports, highlights and related content.
As a category, connected TV platforms were favored by 59 percent of survey participants, but no individual streaming platform was ranked higher than broadcast TV networks as a whole. Among streaming-only platforms, Amazon’s Prime Video ranked the highest, with 11 percent finding favor with that service. Hulu followed close behind at 8 percent. Among network-owned apps, Peacock found the highest favorability at 10 percent, then Paramount Plus at 5 percent.
Interestingly, Hub Entertainment grouped YouTube TV among the “streaming” category, with 10 percent favorability, even though nearly all the sports channels and content offered on the service originate from traditional broadcast and cable networks like ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN.
While sports fans appear willing to use streaming platforms to watch live competitions, they say that experience is not without some difficulty. Around 37 percent of survey participants said they “regularly” experience a technical issue when they watch sports content on streaming services, with the bugs ranging from buffering issues to random app crashes. They also complain that the latency between a traditional TV channel and a streaming platform is too long.
Sports fans also say the fractured nature of telecast rights has made it more difficult to follow a team or competition across services, with most having to switch between apps in order to stay on top of the action throughout a tournament or season. Nearly 7 out of 10 sports fans interviewed by Hub Entertainment said it was a hassle to have to switch across apps, and 59 percent say it’s becoming more difficult to find the sports or competitions they want to watch.
Still, despite all the problems, approximately three-quarters of sports fans interviewed by Hub Entertainment said they’re excited by the prospect of more sports landing on streaming services.
“The reputation streaming brands have built delivering scripted TV has earned them goodwill when it comes to sports,” Jon Giegengack, a principal analyst at Hub Entertainment, said in a statement. “But that goodwill doesn’t come without strings attached: network TV still benefits from the inertia of familiarity, one which individual streamers will need a longer track record to match. Plus, fans are already wary their sports will become more confusing to find – a problem which will be even more frustrating with live sports because it’s critical to find and watch them immediately.”
The findings of the report appear to track with viewership trends during at least one major sporting event: The 2024 Summer Olympic Games from Paris, which ended about two weeks ago.
Viewership data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics as analyzed by The Desk show nearly five out of six viewers who watched the 2024 Summer Games in the United States did so on traditional linear television networks, with the overwhelming amount of that viewership taking place on NBC’s broadcast network.
The average linear television audience for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games was around 31 million per day, according to Nielsen data, while the average streaming audience on NBC’s digital platforms was around 4.1 million per day, according to Adobe Analytics. Comcast-owned Peacock was considered the primary destination for streaming coverage of the competition.
Broadcast television executives who spoke with The Desk say they were not surprised to see traditional linear television was most-favored by Olympic fans, owing to the network’s coverage of live events during “Paris prime-time” and extensive replays during U.S. prime-time hours with human-interest segments. Most NBC affiliate owners, including TEGNA, Nexstar Media and the E. W. Scripps Company, also sent reporters to Paris to help provide localized coverage of the games for hometown audiences, most of which was not available on Peacock.
“Linear television continues to have 100 percent reach across the country, and streaming options like Peacock, even though they’re growing, do not,” Andy Alford, the President of Broadcasting at Nexstar, said in an interview. “So, linear is the easiest and best viewing option for most Americans when they’re looking for the Olympics.”
