The Impact of Streaming Services on Live Sports Viewership

Streaming video has been a new concept for live-watching sports and other events since the mid-2010s. Over the last decade, numerous streaming services have arisen and completely took over cable TV.

To no one’s surprise, streaming services are used more than traditional cable TV or satellite today, which is especially true for sports events. If you’ve ever wondered about the impact streaming services have on live sports viewership, including how they changed the way fans watch sports and the pros and cons of streaming services in the modern era of technology and sports, this is the article for you!

Streaming services allow easy access to your favorite sports

The first notable change we see from the transition from cable TV to live stream channels is how simple it is to boot up your favorite streaming service app (given you have Wifi) at any moment and catch a collection of games within one click of your remote.

These services like ESPN+, Prime Video, Peacock, FuboTV, etc. give you control of the video feed, allowing you to do things such as quick rewind, fast-forward, pause, and even record your favorite games without worrying about DVR space. It’s become as easy as googling the game you want to watch, and then clicking the streaming service associated with that game!

Some games are only shown on one streaming service to build a particular target audience around a specific sports event (Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football or Paramount+ UEFA Champions League).

Direct-to-consumer model

From this shift, the model is headed towards a direct-to-consumer model, allowing brands to directly gain user data for targeted marketing. It’s a common tactic in modern advertising, although it wouldn’t be possible on typical TV channels.

Basically, by watching any game on a specific service, like ESPN, you consent to give ESPN all your digital viewership data, meaning they can look at all the games you watched, watch your favorite teams and what time you use the service. Under the DTC model, a particular concern arises surrounding personal data collection, and a new problem arises (even outside of streaming sports).

New revenue streams

With the rise of these new third-party streaming services comes the downfall of regional sports networks. With different revenue streams heading to a collection of various sports streaming services, traditional sports rights buyers are losing revenue due to increased streaming services.

This causes what we call ‘Media Fragmentation’, or in other words, the increase in the variety of different streaming platforms, leading to a more competitive environment between third-party streaming service companies. This can be good or bad, depending on the actions taken by any streaming company. However, fragmentation generally makes it harder for advertisers and content creators to reach their normal target audience through traditional means. Still, the influx of new revenue streams allows for a more tight-knit competitive environment where only the best streaming services with the best prices and highest quality will be used, and the others will get weeded out.