The blossoming marriage between sports and streaming services has never been more apparent than 59 percent of avid fans said they specifically subscribed to see an exclusive single game there – and 80 percent of those fans said they kept the subscription for more than three months. Among the general population, 30 percent subscribed for a specific game, and 75 percent of them said they kept the service for more than three months after the game was shown.
Among self-described sports fans, 43 percent signed up for a specific game, and 75 percent said they kept the service for more than three months.
Thirty-nine percent of the general population said they would watch future games including playoff games on streaming, a number that rises to 57 percent among sports fans and 72 percent among avid fans.
These were among the findings of a Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted April 22-25 among 1,528 adults across the country. The poll, which is sponsored by Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business featured a national representative sample from YouGov weighted on U.S. Census Bureau figures for age, ethnicity, education, income and geography and has a margin of error of +/-3.0 percent.
“This is very much like the rise of ‘superstations’ in the 1980s,” said Seton Hall Professor Charles Grantham, Director of the Center for Sport Management. “The superstations that were carried by cable systems (mainly TBS, WGN, WPIX and WWOR) all had baseball, and that was the driving force that got them on cable channels. There are still shakeups to come, but it certainly looks like sports will be a driving force going forward on streaming services.”
Streaming Preferences
The Seton Hall Sports Poll has been tracking fan subscriptions in streaming services since 2021. In this span, cable TV subscribers among sports fans fell from 39 percent of households to the current 26 percent. Among the general population, cord cutting has also been dramatic with only 22 percent of the general population currently using cable services, a drop from 36 percent in 2021.
Today, Netflix leads all streaming services in subscribers with 57 percent of the general population. The next leading services are Amazon Prime at 53 percent, Hulu at 37 percent, Paramount at 26 percent, Peacock at 25 percent, Max at 22 percent and Apple TV+ at 19 percent. Since 2021, all the streaming services which have added major sports saw noticeable growth (Apple TV+, Hulu, Paramount and Peacock) while those that haven’t (Discovery + and Max) have been flat during this period.
“The data is clear; if a streaming platform wishes to see subscriber growth, they need to add live sports content,” said Daniel Ladik, Marketing Professor in the Stillman School and chief methodologist to the Poll. “The newer streaming services have achieved subscriber growth, and it is not a coincidence as they have added top-tier live sports to their programing. In recent months, even the legacy streaming platforms of Netflix and Amazon Prime have come to this realization, and they too are adding live sports programing to attract new subscribers.”
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Questions and charted breakdowns below, infographic attached; an online version of this release may be found at https://blogs.shu.edu/sportspoll/
ABOUT THE POLL
The Seton Hall Sports Poll, conducted regularly since 2006, is performed by the Sharkey Institute within the Stillman School of Business. This poll was conducted online by YouGov Plc. using a national representative sample weighted according to gender, age, ethnicity, education, income and geography, based on U.S. Census Bureau figures. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S residents. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. The Seton Hall Sports Poll has been chosen for inclusion in iPoll by Cornell’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and its findings have been published everywhere from USA Today, ESPN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, AP, and Reuters to CNBC, NPR, Yahoo Finance, Fox News and many points in between.
Media: Laurie Pine, Director of Media Relations, Seton Hall University (973) 378-2638; (973) 902-8020
April 2024 Seton Hall Sports Poll
Daniel Ladik, Ph.D., Chief Methodologist – daniel.ladik@shu.edu
This SHSP was conducted April 22nd to April 25th and includes responses from 1,528 US adults with a margin of error of +/- 3.0%. The sample mirrors the US Census percentages on age, gender, income, education, ethnicity, and region.
Q1. Which of the following statements best describes you?
| N=1,528
|
General
Population |
Male | Female | 18 – 34 | 35 – 54 | 55+ |
| I am an avid sports fan | 22% | 33% | 11% | 28% | 26% | 13% |
| I am a sports fan | 43% | 43% | 43% | 48% | 39% | 43% |
| I am not a sports fan | 35% | 24% | 46% | 24% | 35% | 44% |
*Note: Avid + Casual = total sports fandom in the data. Some tables break out the Avid and Casual segments.
In recent years, sports leagues and networks have been slowly migrating games and events to streaming services, including an NFL playoff game this past season which was only available on Peacock.
Q11a. In the past year, did you subscribe to a streaming service specifically because the game you wanted to watch was only offered via the streaming service?
| N=1,528
|
General
Population |
Sports
Fan* |
Non Fan | Avid
Fan |
Casual
Fan |
Male | Female | 18 – 34 | 35 – 54 | 55+ |
| Yes | 30% | 43% | 7% | 59% | 36% | 34% | 27% | 52% | 34% | 11% |
| No | 65% | 54% | 85% | 40% | 60% | 63% | 67% | 43% | 61% | 85% |
| Don’t know/
No opinion |
5% | 3% | 8% | 1% | 4% | 3% | 6% | 5% | 5% | 4% |
Q11b. Did you keep that subscription for more than 3 months?
| N=475
|
General
Population |
Sports
Fan* |
Non Fan | Avid
Fan |
Casual
Fan |
Male | Female | 18 – 34 | 35 – 54 | 55+ |
| Yes | 73% | 75% | 48% | 80% | 70% | 74% | 70% | 74% | 74% | 62% |
| No | 25% | 23% | 48% | 19% | 27% | 24% | 27% | 23% | 25% | 35% |
| Don’t know/
No opinion |
2% | 2% | 4% | 1% | 3% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 1% | 3% |
Only respondents who said “yes” to Q11a were shown Q11b.
Q11c. Will you watch future games and events including playoff games on streaming services?
| N=1,528
|
General
Population |
Sports
Fan* |
Non Fan | Avid
Fan |
Casual
Fan |
Male | Female | 18 – 34 | 35 – 54 | 55+ |
| Yes | 39% | 57% | 7% | 72% | 49% | 44% | 34% | 57% | 45% | 21% |
| No | 45% | 27% | 76% | 19% | 31% | 41% | 48% | 32% | 38% | 59% |
| Don’t know/
No opinion |
16% | 16% | 17% | 9% | 20% | 15% | 18% | 11% | 17% | 20% |
Q12. Within your household, including all members of the household, which, if any of the following media services does the household have a PAID subscription for? Please check all that apply.
| N=1,528
|
General
Population |
Sports
Fan |
Non Fan | Avid
Fan |
Casual
Fan |
| Cable TV | 22% | 26% | 14% | 29% | 25% |
| Satellite TV | 12% | 16% | 5% | 20% | 14% |
| Netflix | 57% | 60% | 51% | 62% | 60% |
| Disney+ | 31% | 34% | 25% | 42% | 31% |
| Amazon Prime | 53% | 55% | 50% | 54% | 55% |
| Hulu | 37% | 36% | 37% | 38% | 35% |
| Apple TV + | 19% | 25% | 9% | 27% | 24% |
| Peacock | 25% | 26% | 23% | 32% | 24% |
| Discovery + | 12% | 14% | 7% | 20% | 11% |
| Max (formerly HBO Max) | 22% | 23% | 19% | 27% | 21% |
| Paramount+ | 26% | 27% | 25% | 30% | 25% |
| Other (write in) | 6% | 6% | 7% | 5% | 7% |
| Don’t know/No opinion | 9% | 5% | 17% | 2% | 6% |
| General
Pop May 2024 |
General
Pop May 2023 |
General
Pop May 2022 |
General
Pop May 2021 |
Sports
Fan* May 2024 |
Sports
Fan* May 2023 |
Sports
Fan* May 2022 |
Sports
Fan* May 2021 |
Non
Fan May 2024 |
Non
Fan May 2023 |
Non
Fan May 2022 |
Non
Fan May 2021 |
|
| Cable TV | 22% | 26% | 25% | 36% | 26% | 31% | 30% | 39% | 14% | 18% | 18% | 31% |
| Satellite TV | 12% | 12% | 13% | 19% | 16% | 15% | 16% | 22% | 5% | 8% | 8% | 14% |
| Netflix | 57% | 55% | 47% | 51% | 60% | 57% | 44% | 53% | 51% | 51% | 52% | 48% |
| Disney+ | 31% | 30% | 26% | 26% | 34% | 32% | 26% | 29% | 25% | 28% | 25% | 23% |
| Amazon
Prime |
53% | 50% | 46% | 48% | 55% | 50% | 46% | 47% | 50% | 50% | 46% | 49% |
| Hulu | 37% | 35% | 31% | 29% | 36% | 34% | 32% | 29% | 37% | 36% | 30% | 29% |
| Apple TV + | 19% | 20% | 13% | 11% | 25% | 26% | 16% | 15% | 9% | 10% | 9% | 6% |
| Peacock | 25% | 22% | 15% | 9% | 26% | 23% | 20% | 10% | 23% | 19% | 10% | 8% |
| Discovery + | 12% | 11% | 10% | 10% | 14% | 12% | 12% | 11% | 7% | 9% | 7% | 8% |
| Max/HBO | 22% | 26% | 22% | 17% | 23% | 27% | 23% | 21% | 19% | 24% | 20% | 12% |
| Paramount+ | 26% | 25% | – | 9% | 26% | 27% | – | 10% | 25% | 22% | – | 7% |
| Other
(write in) |
6% | 6% | 8% | 4% | 6% | 6% | 7% | 4% | 7% | 7% | 10% | 6% |
| No opinion | 9% | 8% | 14% | 8% | 9% | 3% | 10% | 5% | 17% | 14% | 20% | 12% |
ABOUT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY
One of the country’s leading Catholic universities, Seton Hall has been showing the world what great minds can do since 1856. Home to nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and offering more than 90 rigorous majors, Seton Hall’s academic excellence has been singled out for distinction by The Princeton Review, US News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek. Seton Hall, which embraces students of all religions, prepares its graduates to be exemplary servant leaders and caring global citizens. Its attractive main campus is located in suburban South Orange, New Jersey, and is only 14 miles by train, bus or car to New York City, offering a wealth of employment, internship, cultural and entertainment opportunities. A new independent economic analysis of the University found that Seton Hall provides a significant impact on New Jersey’s economy, totaling over $1.6 billion annually and creating and sustaining nearly 10,000 jobs. The university’s nationally recognized School of Law is prominently located in downtown Newark. The University’s Interprofessional Health Sciences (IHS) campus in Clifton and Nutley, New Jersey, houses Seton Hall’s College of Nursing, its School of Health and Medical Sciences as well as Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.
For more information, visit www.shu.edu.