Study addresses sports fan viewing preferences, including how they watch sports, how much they spend, and appeal of interactive services

Parks Associates’ new consumer study, Streaming Sports: The Fan Experience, offers a comprehensive analysis of how US households are consuming sports content, detailing subscription trends, churn drivers, and interest in various service tiers and interactive experiences. The research of 8,000 US internet households shows ESPN+ is the clear leader in sports-specific streaming services, with 19% of US internet households subscribing to ESPN+ and 10% subscribing to NFL+.

Streaming has increased the accessibility of sports, enabling fans to watch events on their preferred devices—whether mobile, smart TVs, or laptops—on their own time or even while on the go. Key findings from the study include:

  • 33% of US internet households subscribe to a D2C (direct-to-consumer) sports service.
  • 43% of US internet households personally watch live sports from any source.
  • 70% of sports viewers ages 18-24 watch at least one live game or match per week, compared to more than 87% of those ages 55 and older.

"As more games move to streaming platforms, the traditional sports viewer, or 'Sports Traditionalist,' who watches only via broadcast or pay TV, is becoming a smaller segment of the overall audience," said Jennifer Kent, VP of Research at Parks Associates. "By Q3 2024, only 8% of consumers in internet households were Sports Traditionalists, with an additional 13% using both traditional outlets and streaming services to watch sports."

With streaming services significantly boosting league revenues, sports organizations will continue exploring innovative ways to distribute games on these platforms. Subscribers to D2C sports apps generally report high satisfaction, with Net Promoter Scores (NPS) comparable to popular streaming services like Prime Video, Disney+, and YouTube TV. Additional highlights from the study:

  • The NBA has the most satisfied subscribers among D2C streaming sports services.
  • Two-thirds of streaming sports service subscribers maintained their subscription after the season ended. Of those who cancelled, more than half said they were very likely to re-subscribe.

This research is available for purchase. To schedule an interview with an analyst or to request specific data, please contact Mindi Sue Sternblitz-Rubenstein at mindi.sue@parksassociates.com, 972-490-1113.

Parks Associates will host the seventh annual Future of Video: Business of Streaming, Nov 18-20, 2025, at the Marina del Rey Hotel in Marina del Rey, California. 

About Parks Associates

Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com

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