A A new survey conducted for Magnite reveals that 44% of cable subscribers would cancel cable if they could get access to live sports and events.
More live events are streaming, and once consumer awareness catches up, it could result in even more cord cuts, said Magnite, the largest sell-side ad platform, which generates a growing share of its revenue through connected TV advertising.
“Anecdotally, we know that live TV, especially live sports, is unprecedented in its ability to engage people and we commissioned this study to better understand how people access and interact with this content” , said Sean Buckley, chief revenue officer at Magnite. “One of the findings of this study is that engagement with live content extends to the advertising that accompanies it. With more audiences connecting to live TV via streaming, it’s a another indicator that advertisers should actively explore this channel.”
Magnite’s study, titled CTV Live Streaming: TV’s Next Big Momentfound that 68% of current CTV viewers use at least one live streaming service.
Of viewers who stream live sports, 49% agreed with the statement that “TV commercials are an important part of my TV experience”, with 62% saying they discovered new products by watching commercials on streaming services.
Of these sports streamers, 67% said they pay more attention to ads that match their lifestyle and interests.
Also: Magnite and the fuboTV team to deliver addressable sports ads on CTV
“CTV is a premium viewing experience with highly engaged audiences that cannot be reached through traditional linear and pay TV,” said Diana Horowitz, Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales at fuboTV. “Historically, live sports kept audiences tied to their cable subscriptions. This is no longer the case with live sports, including marquee events and regional sports networks widely available on CTV platforms like fuboTV. In fact, 90% of our viewers watch fuboTV live and 93% of sports content on fuboTV is watched live.
The report also states that live sports streamers are likely to watch multiple ad-supported services and use an average of 3.6 sports apps. Sports fans unsurprisingly prefer watching live over watching on demand. The report notes that 70% of live sports programs are watched in real time. One of the advantages of cable or broadcast TV over streaming services is a delay live tv viewed on the Internet due to the latency of technology.
The survey was conducted for Magnite by Lucid, who surveyed 1,500 adult US viewers (at least 7 hours per week) online between December 23-30. ■
