Study: Streamers increasingly becoming the home for sports
March 7, 2025
The latest findings from What’s the Score?, Hub’s sports study tracking the evolution of sports fan and media, reveal that US audiences are becoming comfortable watching sports on streaming platforms – just as they did with scripted TV, only much more quickly.
Highlights from Wave 3 of the study include:
Sports fans are just as likely to watch live games on streaming platforms as they are on broadcast or cable networks.
· In 2025, 69 per cent said they watch at least some live games on SVoD platforms – on par with broadcast (66 per cent) and cable networks (63 per cent).
· That’s a marked change from one year ago, when only 62 per cent said they watched on streaming, and nearly 3 out of 4 watched on either broadcast or cable TV.
More sports fans consider streaming their ‘home base’ for live sports.
· Last year, only 23 per cent said streaming was their first stop for sports content – far behind cable (37 per cent) and broadcast networks (30 per cent).
· One year later, 30 per cent of fans said a streaming platform is their first stop for live sports – a huge gain and essentially tied with cable (31 per cent) and broadcast (29 per cent).
Young people and minorities are more likely to follow their sports to streaming platforms
· Fans under the age of 35 are much more likely (48 per cent) than those 35+ (29 per cent) to have signed up for a streaming service specifically to watch sports.
· Subscribing specifically for sports is also more common among Hispanic (46 per cent) and Black fans (38 per cent) than Caucasian viewers (33 per cent).
Social remains the king of highlights, clips and news
· Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of sports fans get at least some of their non-live sports content from social media, and more than a quarter (27 per cent) get all of their non-live content that way.
· Social media is even more dominant among younger fans: 42 per cent between age 18 and 34 get ‘all’ or ‘most’ of their non-live sports content on social platforms.
· This trend is only accelerating: 41 per cent say they’re getting more sports content on social media than they were a year ago (and only 10 per cent are getting less).
“Sports is following the same migration paths to streaming as scripted TV – just a lot faster,” commented Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub and one of the study’s authors. “It took several years before viewers considered Netflix the equal of ‘must-see TV’ on broadcast or cable. But as more big events moved to streaming over 2024, fans have been quickly convinced that streamers will deliver the experience they want. As more high-profile properties move online – like NBA games on [Prime Video] or the Super Bowl on Tubi – young fans will grow up with streaming platforms as the ‘home’ of their favourite sports.”
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