Platforms and streamers with live sports are working to adapt as the types and ways younger fans engage with sports content shifts. But with live events splintered across platforms and distributors the familiar frustration of where to find a game remains for many.
Still, there are some potential avenues to help alleviate the sports content discovery struggle, with most respondents of Hub Entertainment Research’s “Evolution of Sports: What’s the Score?” study signaling favor for sports content aggregation tools and all-in or platform-exclusive rights.
And based on a separate global sports study from Altman Solon, some platforms and rights holders might do well to expand their offerings around sports content into new formats, including short-form, to attract younger cohorts that have different ways they like to consume.
Where’s my game struggle continues
A whopping 87% of sports fans surveyed by Hub say that it’s at least somewhat frustrating to figure out where to watch the sports they follow today, with nearly a quarter feeling “very frustrated.”
The challenge of where to find a specific team or game for a given sport on a given day isn’t new or a secret to streaming platforms, some of which have taken steps to rollout features that aim to help ease the issue.
Hub’s survey zeroed on two of these: ESPN’s “Where to Watch” feature and the Roku’s “Sports Zone” landing page to see what fans thought in terms of how they can improve the viewing experience – where most felt positively.
Results show that 70% said ESPN’s feature, which tells viewers where to find a game even those not on ESPN, would make their sports viewing experience easier. And 60% felt the same about Roku’s Sports Zone, which is a dedicated hub in the Roku interface that aggregates information on specific sports in a central location to simplify finding sports content across platforms.
Although many said these features make things a little easier, they don’t seem to be the ultimate solution for all sports fans. While about one-fifth said the Roku Sports Zone “solves a big problem” with watching sports and about one quarter said the same for ESPN’s aggregation tool, another 40% said they didn’t need the Roku feature while 29% reported the same for ESPN’s Where to Watch.
All-in and exclusive rights attractive to sports fans
With the frustration of where to find a game, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Hub also found fans would be fond of services that carry all of the rights to a sport they follow – with 60% saying their more likely to sign up for such a service and nearly 40% of avid fans reporting they’re “much more likely.”
Still, while fans are in favor, one single platform securing all-in exclusive rights to a major sport isn’t the reality for most at this point.
Hub did take a consumer pulse on Paramount’s $7.7 billion seven-year deal with UFC, which puts all UFC events, including numbered events, on the company’s networks and streaming platforms – finding the all-inclusive nature can help both acquisition and retention when it comes to avid fans.
Per the survey, 89% of avid UFC fans say the deal makes a Paramount+ subscription more valuable (with a third categorizing it as “extremely” more valuable).
Among avid fans who already subscribe to Paramount+, 93% said the new deal makes them more likely to keep their subscription (with 71% elevating that to “much more likely”). And percentages were also high among casual fans of the sport with 44% saying they’re much more likely to keep a subscription and 37% said a little more likley.
The deal also has potential to help on the subscriber acquisition front. For those that don’t already subscribe to Paramount+, 72% of avid UFC fans said they’re more likely to sign up, while 62% of casual fans said the same.
“Fans will go to great lengths to watch the sports they care about—but that doesn’t mean they enjoy hunting across multiple apps to find them,” said Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub and one of the study authors, in a statement. “Services that simplify the experience of watching sports—whether through discovery tools or by consolidating rights to an entire sport—are delivering more value to fans. And more value means more satisfied users and lower churn.”
Younger viewers engage with sports content but consume differently
With some platforms and streaming services investing large sums for top-tier sports rights – and sports often seen as one of the remaining major appointment viewing draws – companies are understandably keen to get fans engaged and tuned into the programming.
Separate findings from Altman Solon’s 2025 Global Sports Survey, released in February, suggest preferences and consumption habits among younger generations are shifting, but interest and fandom for sports remains.
Beyond tools to aggregate where to find teams and matchups, some are testing out new formats and features to tap into younger viewers’ attention and affinity for short-form highlights and other non-live sports content that goes beyond the live game action.
Fielded in December results from the survey (which spanned sports fans in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy, and France) show demand and consumption of sports content is there and growing among younger cohorts, albeit through different forms and habits.
Sports viewing continues to grow, most notably among 25-34-year-olds – representing the cohort with the highest consumption among age groups and for which viewing increased 6% compared to 3-5 years ago.
Per the firm, 25-34-year-olds watch an average of over four hours of live sports per week – on par with older demos – and also consume significantly more highlights and other non-live formats.
The report found those in the 18-34-years-old cohort spend nearly three times as much time watching non-live formats as they do on live sports.
“Our findings support renewed optimism and challenge some of the narratives of recent years that younger generations won’t engage with sports content,” said David Dellea, partner at Altman Solon, in a statement. “Younger fans simply consume differently, with streaming services and short-form content increasingly serving as their preferred gateway to sports content."
Per Altman Solon, format preferences vary widely by game, with younger fans less likely to watch full live game events. Findings show 39% of 18-24-year-olds typically watch an entire event versus 61% for fans aged 65 and older.
When it comes to engagement, this means sports executives and rights owners need to evolve “toward a multi-format, multi-channel offering, as media consumption is no longer anchored in linear TV,” Altman Solon suggests.
That’s already been seen in some efforts such as vertical video feeds with short-form content and highlight clips as seen with Disney’s ESPN Verts feature and a Shorts feature available on the Fox One sports streamer.
“If we know we’re going after an audience of cord cutters and cord nevers who are, generally speaking, getting their live event coverage in different forms through social, how do we replicate that in some way and make it even better,” Fox One SVP of Product Amit Dudakia previously described to StreamTV Insider in building the Shorts experience for the UX.
Others too are looking to engage younger fans with content beyond the live broadcast, such as social content focused on athletes, studio shows and docuseries – including Apple TV offering Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive series as the former gears up for its first year of exclusive F1 racing broadcast rights.
Still, as consumption happens beyond the live game Altman Solon also pointed to a growing monetization challenge against pricey sports rights, “reinforcing the need for smarter packaging and differentiated offerings across formats and platforms.”