Digital live sports viewing in the U.S. will increase 21% by 2027

Here’s the thing:

It probably won’t come as a shock to anyone that’s watched a live sports event this year that streaming has increasingly muscled its way into that viewing experience.

Emarketer recently released a forecast that put this shift into stark perspective: It projected that over 105 million U.S. viewers watched live sports digitally in 2024, an increase from 95.5 million during the previous year. Meanwhile, 85.7 million people in the U.S. likely watched via traditional cable TV last yeara drop from 90.7 million in 2023. (Digital viewing included over-the-top platforms, TV everywhere and virtual multichannel video programming distributors.)

The chasm between digital and traditional viewing is only expected to grow wider in the coming years, according to Emarketer.

Data debrief:

Emarketer projects that by 2027, digital viewing of live sports will reach 127.4 million viewers in the U.S., a 21% increase from 2024, while cable TV viewing could dip to 75.4 million people.

The growth in digital viewing has been rapid. In 2022, traditional viewing still surpassed digital, with 97 million viewers compared to 84 million, according to Emarketer. But in 2023, that quickly changed: Digital viewers exceeded traditional TV viewers in the U.S. for the first time, with 95.5 million digital viewers compared to 90.7 million that viewed via traditional means.

Why it matters:

Whether it’s the NFL Christmas Day games on Netflix last month or the NBA’s recent media rights renewal that included Prime Video, many major sports broadcasting deals now include streaming components.

It’s a reflection of shifts in consumer behavior and the media industry’s race to capture viewers’ attention where they’re most likely to be watching. This change also comes amid struggles for linear TV. Comcast even announced recently that it planned to spin off most of its cable assets, leaving just NBC, Peacock and Bravo under its TV umbrella.

That’s not to say that sports viewing on traditional TV is completely crumbling; sports events — from the Super Bowl to the Olympics — are still some of the most-watched broadcasts on TV. But they are more and more being supplemented with streaming, which means that more and more ad inventory is moving there too.

All of this portends that media sports rights could get even more expensive in the future, as more players — including streaming-first players like Netflix and Amazon — throw their hats in the ring, and live sports continue to be highly viewed. S&P Global projected last year that the total value of U.S. sports media rights could reach a whopping $34.7 billion by 2027.

“Media companies are willing to spend more on sports at a time when many of them are pulling back on content spending,” wrote Ross Benes, an Emarketer senior analyst, in a report. “Producing hit shows is precarious. Studios commonly produce highly budgeted shows that flop. But sports viewership is more predictable.”