WASHINGTON — For many dedicated sports fans, keeping up with their favorite teams has become a juggling act.
Activate an NFL package in August, unsubscribe after the Super Bowl and before the NBA playoffs get underway, then subscribe to the NBA’s service. Grudgingly keep paying the cable bill because it’s the only way to get the local baseball team. Throw in a subscription to ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service for college football.
This patchwork of expensive subscriptions, cable packages and password shares is common for many sports fans, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and it leaves them beholden to multiple platforms at a cost no one seems to like.
About 4 in 10 people who follow sports “extremely” or “very” closely use cable or satellite TV and a sports-only streaming platform, according to the poll, compared with about 2 in 10 people who follow sports “somewhat” closely.
For many fans — particularly those who want to watch out-of-market teams or follow regular-season play closely — there’s no other option. Creating a more seamless form of live sports distribution means essentially rebuilding the cable bundles many have ditched over the last few years.
New services are emerging — most recently, ESPN’s latest direct-to-consumer streaming service, which debuted in August — but for the most part, sports fans stick to multiple platforms and subscriptions. Sometimes, they choose instead to stop regularly watching a favorite sport or team.
Streaming, cable — or both
The people who are happiest with the availability of sports events are the ones who use multiple platforms, according to the poll.
About 6 in 10 of U.S. adults who report using cable and streaming services say they are “somewhat” or “very” satisfied with the availability of sports events they want to watch, compared with just over half who use only sports streaming services and around 3 in 10 who just have cable.
John So, 45, was a relatively early cord-cutter, dropping his DirecTV cable subscription in 2020 in favor of the company’s less expensive streaming service. So, who manages a pipeline supply fabrication business in Houston, said he appreciates the flexibility of being able to stream across multiple devices.
But he sometimes struggles with video quality and turns to other streaming services — Disney+ with ESPN and Hulu integrations or Paramount Plus — when the quality of his DirecTV stream drops out.
And even though he can access almost all of the local Houston Texans games, he sometimes struggles to watch the local NBA and MLB franchises.
“I would say I’m content. I wouldn’t say I’m happy (with the availability of sports),” So said. “Even though I’m not an avid watcher of regular-season games, it’s sort of a feedback loop. The lack of availability of local games makes me not an avid watcher. The fact I need to pay an extra $15 or $16 a month for the local sports network package is a disincentive for me to become an active watcher.”
Serious sports fans are more likely to be using sports-only streaming platforms to begin with. People who follow sports “extremely” or “very” closely report higher usage of sports-only streaming platforms, such as MLB.TV, NFL Sunday Ticket or NBA League Pass. About 6 in 10 people who follow sports “extremely” or “very” closely use sports-only streaming platforms, compared with about 3 in 10 people who follow sports “somewhat” closely. Very few non-fans use these platforms.
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Sports fans are also less likely to be cord-cutters, the AP-NORC poll found. People who follow sports “extremely” or “very” closely are especially likely to say they use cable or satellite TV, with about 6 in 10 saying they use traditional TV options, like cable and satellite. Approximately 40% of people who follow sports “somewhat” closely say the same, as did roughly one-third of people who don’t follow sports closely.
Subscribe, unsubscribe and borrow your friend’s password
The poll also found that sports fans are likelier to churn through streaming services than non-sports fans.
About 6 in 10 sports fans say they have subscribed to a streaming service for a specific show or sports season in the past year, while about half have canceled a streaming service after finishing a specific show or sports season.
People who follow sports “extremely” or “very” closely are especially likely to say they’ve subscribed or canceled for a specific show or season. That’s also true of people who use sports streaming platforms. According to the poll, about two-thirds of people who currently use sports streaming platforms have subscribed to a streaming service for a specific show or season, compared with about one-third of people who don’t use these platforms.
Randy Alvarez, 35, said he can get some of what he wants to watch on YouTube TV, an online alternative to TV. He got rid of cable in 2022 and hasn’t missed it, but he described his approach as a “hodgepodge” of streaming, premium channels and password-sharing.
The Los Angeles-based educator and administrator follows two out-of-market teams with ties to the Bay Area: the Las Vegas Raiders ( formerly of Oakland ) and the Golden State Warriors. But without adding on NFL Sunday Ticket and NBA League Pass, which he said are too expensive, he’s stuck cobbling together what he can get from online streams and whatever is broadcast nationally.
Sometimes, that means he’s out of luck. The four-time NBA champion Warriors, at least, have games on TNT and ABC, Alvarez said. The Raiders? Well, not so much.
Alvarez isn’t alone in his approach. Nearly half of sports fans say they’ve shared a password or had a password shared with them, compared with 30% of people who follow sports “not very” or “not at all” closely.
Most are unhappy about the cost
One area where most sports fans are in agreement: It’s expensive.
About half of people who follow sports at least “somewhat” closely say they are dissatisfied with the cost of the streaming and cable services they use, and about another quarter were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
ESPN’s new ESPN Unlimited streaming, which was introduced at $29.99 per month, offers access to all ESPN networks and include expanded NFL-related programming ESPN received as part of its recent deal with the league.
And, of course, ESPN makes that package available as part of a pay TV package.
The AP-NORC poll of 1,182 adults was conducted Aug. 21-25, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
