The start of the National Football League’s (NFL) regular season drove nearly 7 million new sign-ups to network-owned streaming services that offer live games from the league, according to fresh data released by measurement firm Antenna this week.
Comcast’s Peacock, Paramount Plus, ESPN and Fox One collectively reported a 11.2 percent increase in sign-ups during the start of football season compared with their average monthly acquisition totals during the March to August off-season, Antenna said.
Each service carried at least three NFL games during the September measurement period, when broadcast networks saw some of the biggest subscriber acquisitions to their streaming services and plans.
ESPN saw the largest increase, with September sign-ups to ESPN Unlimited rising 94.4 percent above its off-season monthly average, Antenna said.
The measurement firm uses opt-in financial data, mostly from bank accounts and credit card statements, to determine subscriber acquisition and churn across streaming services. With that in mind, Antenna’s data doesn’t take into account streamers who pay for cable, satellite or a streaming cable-like alternative who might have access to ESPN Unlimited with those plans, since they wouldn’t show up on bank statements as an ESPN Unlimited activation.
Moving on, Fox One recorded a 16.2 percent increase in sign-ups last month compared to its off-season average, despite the network offering a full slate of FIFA World Cup tournament games during the summer months.
Peacock was the only service that didn’t exceed its off-season monthly average sign-up rate in September. Antenna painted that in a good light, saying Peacock saw strong customer acquisitions with Telemundo’s coverage of the World Cup and the streamer’s offering of the popular reality competition series “Love Island USA,” with NFL games likely helping to retain subscribers and lower churn through September.
Beyond attracting new customers, NFL programming also encouraged former subscribers to return: Antenna estimated around 20 percent of gross additions across the four services were from people who churned out in the 12-month period before September, only to return when NFL games started up.
Paramount Plus and Fox One had some of the highest re-subscription rates at 39 percent and 21 percent respectively, according to Antenna’s data.
