Was NFL Game Streamed on Peacock Wise Gamble? Fans Say Yes

Although the reverberations from the first-ever NFL playoff game to run exclusively on a streaming service (Kansas City vs. Miami) are still being analyzed, results from a recent Seton Hall Sports Poll are telling – and perhaps seismic.

A full 28 percent of American adults said they watched the game, which received the highest ratings for any live streaming event in U.S. history.

Of those who watched, 50 percent said they did not have a subscription to Peacock before the game.

Sports Fans Bought Peacock

Among self-described sports fans, 42 percent said they watched the game – 48 percent of those who watched did not have a subscription to Peacock before the game.

"The experiment is over and streaming has fully arrived in the world of sports – and that could change everything," said Seton Hall Professor Charles Grantham, director of the Center for Sport Management. "This game, those ratings and the Peacock subscription gains put the sports media industry at a point of no return. For leagues and teams, streaming is the next major revenue source."

These were among the findings of a Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted February 1-5 among 1,523 adults across the country. The poll, which is sponsored by Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business featured a national representative sample from YouGov weighted on U.S. Census Bureau figures for gender, age, ethnicity, education, income and geography and has a margin of error of +/- 3.0 percent.

Cancel My Subscription?

Of those who watched the game on Peacock, 69 percent said they plan to keep their subscription for more than three months. Among sports fans, that number rose to 72 percent.

Room to Grow?

Although record-breaking for a live streaming event, the poll’s findings indicate that there may still be room to grow. Among the general population 28 percent said they watched; among sports fans that number rose to 42 percent.

Of those who did not watch:

• 30 percent said they did not watch as a matter of principle. For sports fans that number rose to 44 percent.
• 38 percent of the general population and 52 percent of sports fans said they simply did not want to pay for a streaming service.
• 18 percent said they did not watch because it was too difficult to find the game, with that number rising to 29 percent for sports fans.

"These numbers are stunning and seem to show that many sports fans are still on the sidelines and, importantly, available," said Daniel Ladik, marketing professor in the Stillman School and chief methodologist to the Poll. "Three of the biggest barriers to watching this game on a streaming platform – principle, money and logistics (simply being able to find the game) – were not cited as major hurdles for a sizable portion of the general population and, more importantly, sports fans."

Questions, breakdowns and additional charts may be found in an online version of this release.

About the Poll

The Seton Hall Sports Poll, conducted regularly since 2006, is performed by the Sharkey Institute within the Stillman School of Business. This poll was conducted online by YouGov Plc. using a national representative sample weighted according to gender, age, ethnicity, education, income and geography, based on U.S. Census Bureau figures. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S residents. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. The Seton Hall Sports Poll has been chosen for inclusion in iPoll by Cornell’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and its findings have been published everywhere from USA Today, ESPN, The New York Times, Washington Post, AP, and Reuters to CNBC, NPR, Yahoo Finance, Fox News and many points in between. 

Categories: Athletics, Business