Many Viewers Will Pay For Sports - With Or Without Cable Package

Nearly half of TV consumers will pay for sports TV -- even if it isn’t part of a pay TV cable package.

Among people who indicated they often watch at least one sport, 49% said they would pay to stream their favorite sport without a cable subscription. These results come from video management company Clearleap.

Some 37% said they would pay $20 per month or less for a streaming sports service; 8.1% would pay $21 to $49; and 4% would pay $50 or more.

In addition, research said 67% of cable subscribers said sports were not the reason they kept their pay TV service.

Sports programming is typically the most expensive for TV programmers and distributors to put on their services. For example, ESPN typically charges up to $6 a month per subscriber to a pay TV provider.

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“Sports is a major deterrent to cord-cutting -- but it is not the full answer to stop all or most cord-cutting,” said Mike Vorhaus, president of media research and consulting firm Magid Advisors, after reviewing Clearleap’s report.

Clearleap surveyed 435 consumers between the ages of 18 and 49 in January. The margin of error in the survey was 4.7%

Research says 46% of sports TV users don’t use digital TV Everywhere platforms because they didn’t know the service was available, didn’t know how to log in, or they felt it was too difficult.

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