Sports viewership globally grew in Q3, with half of households (50%) watching sports — up six percentage points quarter on quarter.
Among the new viewers, a majority (56%) were female and nearly half (48%) were over the age of 55.
Kantar’s latest Entertainment on Demand study also found that ad-supported streaming services showed 8% quarter-on-quarter growth in subscriptions.
Meanwhile, free ad-supported TV (FAST) users grew by a more modest 2%.
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Greater sports viewership was driven in part by interest in the Olympic Games, which were held during 14-30 July. And while growth came via paid TV and linear channels, VOD services were also beneficiaries. For example, one in four new Discovery+ subscribers in the quarter said access to Olympics content drew them to subscribe.
“Live sport is playing an increasingly important role in user retention as it brings in a substantial live viewership that’s rare for other on-demand content,” said Kantar global insights director Andrew Skerratt.
The importance of live sports for drawing and retaining large, reliable audiences has led to rising broadcast and streaming rights for many of the world’s most popular leagues. Streaming services with a large cash pile thanks to other aspects of their business, such as Amazon Prime Video, are able to spend lavishly for slices of the sports rights pie, further driving up bidding costs.
According to another survey in September commissioned by Sky, 74% of UK adults said they consume sport-related content via broadcast TV, compared with just 35% via streaming services.
“Streamers are now using this to cash in on new subscribers — sports fans are a highly engaged, valuable audience who exhibit stronger satisfaction and loyalty to their regular TV services,” Skerratt added.
However, he argued that “succeeding in sports on demand requires more than content rights” and that streaming services need to invest in high-quality products to retain long-term users. That includes paying for high-end commentators, interactive features and more.
It is also worth noting that a large portion of streaming service growth is in part due to bundles, discounts and free trials.
According to Kantar, a quarter (24%) of subscriptions globally are discounted or bundled with another service, such as an internet provider or hardware, banking or retail purchases. In the UK, that includes Disney+’s deal at £1.99 for three months as well as partnerships with Lloyds Bank and Tesco. As the Kantar report noted, this can lead to elevated churn rates.
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