Omdia research finds 90% of US sports fans engage with football, but fans need 3 streaming services minimum for comprehensive NFL game coverage

LONDON, 16 May, 2023 – New research from Omdia has found that 90% of sports fans watch American football and 71% engage with the NFL (versus collegiate football only). The latest outlook comes from Omdia’s Sports Convenience Package, which provides consumer research, rights tracking, value tracking, Esports revenues, and subscription video on demand (SVOD) and advertisement-based video (AVOD) insights about sports worldwide. 

In the US, live NFL broadcasts are shared across seven rights owners: Amazon Prime Video, CBS (the linear channel)/Paramount+, ESPN/ABC/ESPN+ (with variances on which games air on each), Fox (the linear channel)/Tubi (no live games, just replays), NBC (the linear channel)/Peacock, YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket, and NFL+ (mobile or tablet only).  

All this to say that there are seven different channels or OTT providers with NFL rights, but no way to watch all NFL games exclusively on OTT services. A consumer could stack Prime Video, NFL Sunday Ticket, and ESPN+ to get most games except for the occasional Monday night games not simulcast from ABC to ESPN+. This would cover ~95% of the NFL season but will cost a consumer ~$170 per month.

vMVPDs strive to be the modern sports solution, but uptake is slower than SVOD

Omdia analysis also shows that virtual pay TV subscriptions in the US has continued to grow to 16.8m at year end 2022, but this is not outpacing the losses seen from traditional pay TV. Unlike traditional pay TV, some virtual pay-TV services offer multiple profiles per subscription, which could encourage password sharing and keep linear TV as a preferable consumer option. 

Sarah Henschel, Principal Analyst at Omdia, commented: “Sports is one of the last things keeping consumers tied to their pay TV subscriptions. Now that YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket and Apple’s MLS Season Pass have become fully available with streaming regardless of location, the pressure is on for all leagues to create streaming offerings that aren’t filled with frustrating blackouts.” 

Insights on other leagues such as the NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS are available in Omdia’s full report.