A new study done by Magid finds that sports fans might be cable’s new best friends. Two out of five cord cutters say that sports is the only reason they’d return. Eight-eight percent say that they watch sports on a television set, as opposed to their phones or computer. Alexander Brown, president and CEO of ONE World Sports says that:
Sports remains the most DVR-proof form of video content. The excitement, immediacy and community around sports contests demand live viewing, whether that viewing takes place via an antenna, or a pay-TV provider, or via a live web stream. Whatever the format, the findings support that people want to watch sports live, and on the best – typically largest and most crisp – available screen.
Some other findings from the study:
- Twenty-five percent of all broadband-only consumers cut their cords within the last two years, but 51 percent have been cord cutters for more than five years.
- Women are as likely as men to have cut the cord within the past two years, at 25 percent each.
- Millennials make up the majority, 52 percent, of cord cutters over the past two years.
The study was done as research for One World Sports, a network for soccer, rugby, MMA, and all the other sports content that’s not the MLB, NFL, NBA, and the other big guys. It’s niche sports. But there’s a market for that and any new VOD platform needs to take the small guys into consideration since they might not be able to get the NFL Network on their platform before Apple does. People will watch a lot of whatever you give them, even if it is cricket.