Hub: Sports Fans Flock to Streaming

Viewers are open to using streaming platforms for coverage of their favorite sporting events but are frustrated with technical issues and fragmentation, according to a new report from Hub Entertainment Research.

For What’s the Score: The Evolution of Sports Media, Hub showed sports fans a list of nine options for sports coverage. Some 24 percent of respondents said network TV would do the best job of delivering sports, as compared with just 11 percent for Prime Video. However, streaming as a category was preferred by 59 percent of respondents, even though 37 percent of avid fans reported regular technical glitches when streaming sports, including buffering, app crashes and a time lag.

As with the scripted space, fragmentation is a concern; 69 percent of fans say it’s an inconvenience to sign up for multiple providers to access the same sport, while almost 59 percent are struggling to find the sports they want to watch.

“The reputation streaming brands have built delivering scripted TV has earned them goodwill when it comes to sports,” said Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub and one of the study’s authors. “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.”