Fans Cheer Rise of Streaming Sports, Worry That Games Will Be Harder to Watch

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. —A new survey and research study Hub Entertainment Research highlights how sports fans are embracing streaming while still complaining about about serious problems with the medium. Those problem include technical issues and worries that the games will be harder to find and watch.

The Hub’s “ What’s the Score: The Evolution of Sports Media ” survey found that in general, fans believe traditional broadcast or cable networks can deliver sports better than individual streaming brands. A quarter (24%) of respondents said network TV would do the best job of delivering sports – more than twice as high as Amazon Prime (11%) and about 3x higher than brands like Hulu or Netflix. However, as a category, almost twice as many chose a streaming platform (59%) as those who chose network TV (24%). The Hub researchers said that this is a testament to the brand equity streaming platforms have built with their scripted TV experience.

The survey also found that 37% of avid sports fans said they “regularly” experience at least one of a list of technical issues while streaming sports – from buffering to app crashes, to a lag between the streaming TV game feed and the network broadcast.

But those issues don’t seem to have impacted their perception of streaming sports overall, the researchers reported. About 3 in 4 fans who experience glitches while streaming still say they’re excited about having more sports available on streaming/ Statistically, the enthusiasm is similar among those who don’t have technical problems: 68% of them are excited to see more sports on streaming.

However, the study found that there are signs of growing problems in the TV streaming experience. Just as with scripted TV content, fragmentation creates the potential for a more clunky viewing experience. As a result, 69% of avid sports fans think it’s a hassle to use multiple providers to watch the same sport and 59% say it’s gotten more difficult to find the sports they want to watch. Notably, both have grown directionally in the six months since the first wave of this survey, the researchers reported.

“The reputation streaming brands have built delivering scripted TV has earned them goodwill when it comes to sports,” said Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub and one of the study’s authors. “But that goodwill doesn’t come without strings attached: network TV still benefits from the inertia of familiarity, one which individual streamers will need a longer track record to match. Plus, fans are already wary their sports will become more confusing to find – a problem which will be even more frustrating with live sports because it’s critical to find and watch them immediately.”

The data cited here come from Hub’s semiannual study “ What’s the Score: The Evolution of Sports Media ,” conducted among 3,763 US sports fans age 13 to 74.  Interviewing was completed in July 2024. A free excerpt of the findings is available on Hub’s website .