Football’s dominance as America’s favorite sport is highlighted by National Football League (NFL) and NCAA College Football games being televised on broadcast and cable, as well as on streaming services. But, when it comes to how fans watch game-day coverage and the play-by-play, traditional channels win, a new TVB study finds.
To identify the top media and platforms fans use to watch/listen to these events, TVB engaged Dynata to field a survey of 5,000 viewers who either watched or listened to National Football League or NCAA College Football games on linear or streaming platforms.
The big finding from the study? Linear TV is still the primary and preferred way for viewers to watch NFL and NCAA College Football. At the same time, it is important to viewers to be able to watch their local teams on their local broadcast TV station, survey respondents share.
Among the other survey conclusions:
- Linear TV “overwhelmingly tops” streaming for football viewing.
- Nearly nine out of ten football viewers think it is important for their local sports team to be on local broadcast TV. That’s welcome news to companies such as The E.W. Scripps Co. and Gray Television, which have worked hard to bring more local sports to broadcast TV in the last 12 months. Linear/local broadcast TV is even more important for key football viewers, including frequent sports viewers, men 25-54, upper income and ethnic groups, TVB finds.
- 83% of football viewers watch sports on local broadcast TV stations at least once a week. This number rises to 90% for men 25-54, and 92% for frequent sports viewers.
TVB data also show that of 79% of football viewers that conducted an online search, TV ads during sporting events motivated their search selections.
For men 25-54, that number climbs to 87%.
