The sports streaming industry has been expanding exponentially since the past decade making the OTT platforms getting inclined to sports streaming more than ever. Traditional OTT platforms which have been into entertainment content streaming like Hulu, Prime video, and others have started sports streaming to leverage the ever-growing sports streaming sector and a widespread audience base.
As stated in a recent market report, the global sports live streaming sector is expected to surpass US $93 billion by 2030 and this explains well why even the leading OTT platforms are betting big on sports streaming. With the rise in internet-based streaming content consumption and the increasing usage of smart devices, the inclination towards live sports streaming is only set to increase further in the near future.
Undoubtedly, it’s a fast-growing trend to watch out for the OTT players that is worth exploring and in this blog, we will walk you through all you need to know about it.
Why Is Sports Streaming Gaining Traction among the OTT Players?
Nearly half of the U.S. population watch live streams regularly and sports live streaming contributes significantly to it. Statistics revealed that more than half of the live sports viewers are willing to pay for online sports streaming, while more than 60% of the households with children in the regions like U.S, U.K., and others watch live sports streaming regularly.
There are a lot of benefits of sports streaming that makes it so widely adopted by the OTT players around the globe. Let’s have a look!
1. Reach to a Wide Audience Base
There is a widespread and fast-growing audience base of online sports. To give you a glimpse, let’s look at some of the statistics –
Sports Event | Number of Online Viewers (On an Average) |
Cricket World Cup 2019 | 2.6 billion |
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 | 1.12 billion |
UEFA Champions League 2018 | 380 million |
NCAA Final Four 2022 | 18.1 million |
NBA Finals 2022 | Over 16 million |
The Masters 2022 | 13.16 million |
World Cup of Rugby 2019 | 12.8 million |
Wimbledon Championships 2022 | Over 50 million |
FIFA World Cup 2022 | Over 18.9 million |
These statistics just give a glimpse of the rising viewership of online sports streaming. By live streaming sports events, you can reach out to this wide audience base which in turn will help you scale or expand your OTT business, and increase your profitability.
2. Higher Engagement
Audience engagement plays an important role in the profitability of an OTT platform and live streaming sports events can cater to it significantly. Sports enthusiasts always prefer to watch live sports and not recorded events.
Live streaming sports events cater to the audience engagement and helps in word-of-mouth promotion of your OTT platform. Also, you can improve the audience engagement further through the features like live chat.
3. Better Social Media Exposure
Not only can you live stream sports on your OTT app/website, but you can leverage diverse social media platforms by sharing your sports live streams over there. Social media has a huge audience base worth exploring.
Statistics revealed that more than 60% of the sports viewers follow sports related accounts on social media while nearly 80% of them interact with the posts on these accounts. To give you some more estimations, the ROI for NBA Champion Golden State Warriors was increased by 89 times by using Facebook, the attendance for the TCU women’s volleyball game was increased by 24% within 7 weeks using social media, and the list goes on.
A recent survey revealed that more than 55% of the customers consider social media to be a significant amplifier in the sports sector, while more than 90% of the global sports leaders believe that the social media engagement for the sports fans will increase over 90% in the next 5-10 years. These give just some glimpses of how sports live streaming on social media can expand your audience base and cater to your business growth.
If you opt for a live streaming platform provider with simple and fast social media integrations, then it will be just a matter of a few minutes for you to live stream on multiple platforms, simulcast live videos as well as track the performance of the social media live streaming to improve and optimize them further for better social media exposure.
4. Endless Advertising Opportunities
One of the most lucrative benefits of sports live streaming is it lets you explore new advertising opportunities. According to a recent market report, the global sports sponsorship market is set to surpass US $89 billion in 2027 from its benchmark of US $57 billion in 2020 while growing at a CAGR of 6.72%.
Brand marketing, sponsorships, exclusive live stream advertising rights, live streaming pre & post show sponsorships, collaborations, influencer marketing & affiliate marketing – there is endless scope to grab the low-hanging opportunities the market offers and leverage its fast growth. Leading players like Coca Cola, Adidas, Puma, Nike, PepsiCo, Rolex, and others have a significant contribution in sports sponsorships growth and the rising potential of sports advertising. No matter whether you are already running an OTT platform or planning to start one, considering live sports streaming will open the path for you to utilize these unlimited advertising opportunities.
5. Selling Merchandise
According to a recent market analysis, the worldwide online sports merchandising market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% from 2022 to 2030, contributing to the predicted revenue of the global merchandising market of over US $500 billion by 2030.
Sports lovers have a strong demand for products like sports apparel, accessories, gear, games, footwear, and others, and selling sports merchandise will help you leverage this scope to gain even better revenue. According to a recent report by Statista, the value of sales from sports merchandise in the United States alone reached US$ 53 billion in 2020 and is still increasing, with an important role played by online sports merchandise. The craze for the same is ever-growing across continents and OTT platforms have started exploring this for a while now.
Leverage the Ever-Growing Opportunities: Start Live Sports Streaming With Muvi
No wonder that the craze for live sports streaming is growing exponentially around the world, and many of the leading OTT players are utilizing this opportunity at an increasing rate. To make the best out of this ever-growing opportunity, now is the right time to make a decision and turn your OTT business into a more profitable one.
Intrigued to know how?
Muvi One, an all-in-one OTT platform provider, can help you start off on the right foot and that too without writing even a single line of code! Muvi One comes with a dedicated sports streaming solution that lets you launch a fully featured live and on-demand sports streaming platform with a range of competitive features –
- Your Own Branded Apps & Website
- Direct Live Streaming from Camera, Stadium or Mobile Devices
- Sports Streaming Monetization
- Easy Social Media Integration
- Sports Merchandising
- Multiple Content Partners Addition and Management
- Community Engagement through Social Media
- Real-time Analytics
And many more!
Take a 14-day free trial today to learn more (no credit card needed)!
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