May 24th, 2023, YouGov
Netflix is the most popular platform to watch sports, followed by YouTube
New data from YouGov’s latest report- The Global Sports Media Landscape, reveals that just over two thirds of global consumers (67%) follow sports on a regular basis (in the last 30 days) via various media platforms.
In this new report, YouGov sets out to understand how consumption of sports content is changing and how sports organizations need to adapt to keep up with changing media behavior.
Looking at the data by country, we see that nearly two-thirds of Australian residents (65%) are ‘sport engagers’, defined as those who engage with sports they regularly follow (in the last 30 days) across any traditional and digital media platforms or formats.
The highest proportion is reported by Indonesia and the UAE (89% each). Other Asian markets reporting high level of sports engagement are India (85%), Hong Kong (83%) and China (79%). Comparatively, European countries and America register lower levels of engagement.
Examining how consumers engage with the sports they regularly follow by country reveals that live TV is the preferred method in 12 out of the 18 markets surveyed. Live sports on TV dominates in the more traditional European markets along with North America (US, Mexico, and Canada), whilst social media occupies pole position in all Asian countries.
In Australia, 35% watch live sports on a TV channel. One in five (20%) engage with sports on social media and slightly lesser watch non-live video content online (like YouTube) or watch live content on video streaming services (17% each).
An examination of their streaming behaviour shows that three in ten Australian residents (29%) claim they have subscribed to a streaming platform or service to gain access to exclusive sports content, which is above the global average of 21%.
Sports-led subscriptions enhance the level of sports consumption among subscribers. In fact, 84% Australian adults claim they are somewhat or much more likely to watch sports due to their subscription.
When it comes to the most popular platform for streaming sports content, YouTube TV is the top choice among a fifth (20%) of global consumers. However, in Australia, Netflix is more popular than YouTube for consuming sports content, and nearly a fifth (19%) use Netflix to this genre of content. It is particularly more popular among adults between 25 and 44 years, as compared to others.
Methodology: The insights in this report are drawn from a recent global YouGov Survey to understand the challenges and opportunities for sport in an evolving media landscape, how the consumption of sports content is changing, and what sports organizations should do to adapt to changing media behavior. Our research covers 18 global markets of more than 19,000 respondents. The survey results were further bolstered by connecting respondent level YouGov Research data to YouGov’s proprietary syndicated data solution for the sports industry specifically. Our survey was fielded from the 11th November to 30th November 2022. Data for Australia is based on a nationally representative sample of 1052 respondents. Data is adjusted with mild weighting using interlocking demographic characteristics.