Live sports keep audiences on the edge of their seats all year long. In fact, around 88% of Comcast households watch live sports throughout the year, and these households spend an average of 23 hours per month watching live sports.1
And savvy advertisers know that televised live sports deliver large, captivated fan bases. After all, ads shown during live sports are +47% more likely to be seen by two or more viewers per household than traditional television programs.2
Not all sports fans are created equal, though, and to maximize their investments, advertisers should pay attention to what sets these fans apart in their viewing behaviors and preferences.
The Levels of Sports Fandom
To better understand sports fans, Comcast Advertising surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults who engaged with sports content, such as live game coverage, game highlights, or sports-related talk shows. The survey found that 84% of U.S. viewers watch the Big Four (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL) and 69% engage with content around a game, including pre- and post-game shows, social media, and game highlights.3
Through this study, we categorized respondents into three types of fans to help advertisers better understand and target them.
- Casual fans watch live sports coverage and spend two hours or less per week with sports content. They are the least likely to multitask while viewing, making them a highly engaged audience.
- Avid fans spend more than five hours per week with sports content, watch live sports coverage, often see sports as an integral part of their social lives, and tend to watch game-related content in large groups and social settings. They also drive results: 46% of avid fans purchased a product that they saw while watching live sports.3
- Niche sports fans watch up to four hours per week of sports content and cultivate sports fandoms outside of the Big Four, like tennis, soccer, and college sports. They are the most likely to have multiple games on at once.
As an advertiser, unless your brand is closely related to the sports world, it’s likely that your target audience is composed of a mix of casual, avid, and niche fans, making it important to consider how and where you reach them with sports advertising.
Reaching Across the Fandom
It’s not just what fans are watching that matters; it’s also where they are watching. To connect with sports fans, brands must meet them where they are. Seventy percent of avid fans watch live sports programming via streaming, compared to 59% of casual fans.3 According to our survey, almost half of all fans will sign up for a streaming service just to watch a particular sport or sporting event, with avid fans 31% more likely to do so.3
Sports fans still heavily rely on traditional TV to keep up with their favorite teams, however, with 67% percent of avid fans and 53% of casual fans typically watching live sports on traditional TV.3
Environment matters, too: 85% of all sports fans say they actually prefer watching live sports on television rather than in-person, because it provides them with a more comprehensive and contextualized viewing experience.3
Sports Fans Pay Attention When It Matters Most
Unsurprisingly, tentpole events like the Super Bowl, March Madness, and NBA Finals are popular among viewers.3 In fact, 55% of the most-watched sports content are tentpole events, including post-season coverage.4 These types of events also tend to inspire communal viewing experiences, likely providing advertisers with even more eyeballs on their content. Furthermore, viewers who tune in for tentpole events are 10% more likely to watch ads than other live sports viewers.4
Sports Fans Are Open to Advertising
Almost half of sports fans have a positive perception of ads shown during game coverage.3 More than half of fans prefer when ads are related to the sport they’re watching and appreciate seeing ads for small businesses while watching sports.3 48% of fans think the amount of ads shown during games is just about right, and only 41% would pay more for an ad-free experience, suggesting the majority of viewers are used to advertising breaks and do not view them negatively.3
Sports Fans Are Fueled by Emotion
The highly emotional tenor of live sports can impact consumer behavior, leaving viewers especially primed for advertisers. Research from Mediaprobe found that fans’ high emotions during a matchup can result in higher brand memorability for advertisements they viewed throughout the game.5
Brands that advertise during live sports also benefit from fan loyalty: 69% of the fans surveyed said they will watch a game all the way to the end even if the team they are rooting for is losing, meaning advertisers have a longer window to get in front of these fans and make an impact with their message.3
Making a Game Plan
Advertising on sports programming provides brands access to millions of loyal sports fans, but the right media mix is key to maximizing reach and impact. Advertisers have to consider the multitude of endpoints that connect sports fans with sports content. Limiting media strategy to just one medium limits campaign reach.
As sports content continues to expand across both traditional and streaming TV, a multiscreen TV approach is crucial to meeting sports fans wherever they are watching. Regardless of how viewers tune in, multiscreen TV has all your bases covered.
For more insights on how and where sports fans are tuning in, download Behind the Remote: A Deep Dive into Sports Viewership & Fandom.
Sources:
1. Comcast Aggregated Viewership Data for sports programming 2023.
2. TVision Program Analysis Time Period Report. 1H 2024. Live Sports= Live + SD on linear only. Non-Sports = Live +7 on linear only. Co-viewing rate is the proportion of viewing where two or more viewers are in the room with the content tuned for a minimum of 2 seconds for commercial time.
3. Comcast Advertising Survey. N=1000. April 2024. Qualifying Criteria: Watched sports content (game, highlights, talk show, etc…) in the past six months.
4. Comscore Program-Based National Ranker. Household Live. January – December 2023. Most watched = Top 100 Sports Telecasts.
5. Mediaprobe, Determining The Value of Emotional Engagement to TV, 2024.
