SURVEY USA: MORE VIEWERS TURN TO STREAMING FOR SPORTS

The latest wave from Hub’s sports tracker shows that in just one year, streaming platforms have made great strides toward becoming the “home base” for sports

A new survey highlights how far major streaming platforms have come in terms of offering sports, with findings that show the number of people who say they watch some sports on streaming services exceeds those who watch some games on broadcast or cable.

The “What’s the Score?,” Hub’s sports study found that sports fans are just as likely to watch live games on streaming platforms as they are on broadcast or cable networks. In 2025, 69% said they watch at least some live games on SVOD platforms – on par with broadcast (66%) and cable networks (63%).

That’s a marked change from one year ago, when only 62% said they watched on streaming, and nearly 3 out of 4 watched on either broadcast or cable TV.

“Sports is following the same migration paths to streaming as scripted TV – just a lot faster,” said 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 Amazon or the Super Bowl on Tubi – young fans will grow up with streaming platforms as the ‘home’ of their favorite sports.”



More importantly, far more sports fans consider streaming their “home base” for live sports compared to one year ago. Last year, only 23% said streaming was their first stop for sports content – far behind cable (37%) and broadcast networks (30%). One year later, 30% of fans said a streaming platform is their *first* stop for live sports – a huge gain and essentially tied with cable (31%) and broadcast (29%).



Source: Hub Entertainment ResearchYoung people and minorities are more likely to follow their sports to streaming platforms. Fans under the age of 35 are much more likely (48%) than those 35+ (29%) to have signed up for a streaming service specifically to watch sports. Subscribing specifically for sports is also more common among Hispanic (46%) and Black fans (38%) than Caucasian viewers (33%).

Social remains the king of highlights, clips and news. Almost two-thirds (62%) of sports fans get at least some of their non-live sports content from social media, and more than a quarter (27%) get all of their non-live content that way.

Source: tvtechnology.com