According to Parks Associates, 27% of U.S. pay TV households surveyed say sports programming is the primary reason they subscribe to their pay TV service.
"While broadcast and pay TV remain key sources for live sports, OTT streaming options have become an important part of the live sports landscape," said Brett Sappington, Parks' senior director of research. "Increasingly, leagues and networks are offering direct-to-consumer options. These services offer access to content that would otherwise not be broadcast and subscription options to those not subscribing to pay TV. In the past several weeks, both CBS and ESPN have launched their own streaming services for sports content. These services will both compete with and complement major services such as WWE Network and MLB.TV. Over time, pay TV providers will likely partner with these types of services in order to round out their existing channel packages."
Other Parks research indicates:
- 52% of U.S. broadband households have a subscription to both pay TV and one or more OTT video services.
- 10% of U.S. broadband households have switched, downgraded, or cancelled their pay TV service in the past 12 months.
- U.S. broadband households spend $23 on average for video entertainment per month.