At a time of Hollywood contraction, the streamers’ fierce push into live sports appears to be paying off, according to the latest research from Ampere Analysis.
Ampere examined the SVoDs that hold NFL rights versus those without and found big gains in Q1 2024 related to football coverage and the Super Bowl match-up between the 49ers and the Chiefs.
Paramount+ and Peacock, which both show football, saw the number of U.S. internet users claiming to use their platform grow by 22% and 18% respectively over this period, and this monthly active viewing rose even further among NFL fans, with Paramount+ shooting up 30% and Peacock 28%. Amazon Prime Video, which also shows football, saw big gains of 59% from the same fanbase, according to the research.
Paramount+ has seen the biggest growth in monthly active viewing  of all the streaming platforms with NFL rights, driven by the Super Bowl, which reports said had the highest U.S. TV ratings since the 1969 moon landing. The February 11 final was a nail biter and had added interest due to the appearance of Taylor Swift in support of her boyfriend – the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce.
All U.S. streaming platforms that hold NFL rights saw average growth in monthly active viewers of 14% between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024, compared to 10% growth across SVoD platforms as a whole, Ampere added.
Sports streaming strategies have been under the microscope this year given that Hollywood is experiencing teething problems on multiple fronts, especially for the newer breed of streamer such as Paramount+ and Peacock. Ampere’s previous research, for example, found that the number of scripted TV seasons being ordered in the U.S. had nearly halved since 2019, as the Brit analysis firm posited a period of “Hollywood displacement.”
Minal Modha, a Research Director at Ampere, said Q2 of this year will likely “see the awarding of the NBA rights, the last chance for platforms or streamers to get a seat at the table for a significant amount of time.”
“The growth in viewership for platforms holding NFL rights shows how important tier 1 sports rights can be to streaming platforms, especially in an increasingly competitive streaming  market,” she added.
