• by Masha Geller , March 12, 2003

With March Madness and baseball's opening day just around the corner, Sports sites are preparing for one of the most important seasons of the year. They’re expecting quite an audience, according to comScore’s Week on the Web reports, which shows that more than 51 million people - over a third of all Internet users - visited the Sports category in January (with more than 16 million unique visitors, ESPN is the leader of the Sports category.)

The real story, however, is the young male demo. Just as in the offline world, the online Sports category represents an attractive vehicle through which marketers can target highly engaged consumers - especially males. The proof is in the numbers: more than 40% of all male Internet users visited a Sports site in January; ESPN properties alone reached 14% of all male surfers. For marketers seeking to develop lasting relationships with impressionable male consumers, the Sports category is even more worthy of consideration, given a noteworthy skew toward younger surfers.

As might be expected, the Sports category is more popular with males than females. Although females comprise 52% of the total U.S. Internet population, males represented a disproportionate 57% of all January visitors to the Sports category and within the male population, Sports sites are particularly popular with younger visitors.

In fact, the total category reaches more than half of all male Internet users age 25-34, comScore says. Males age 35-44 lead the pack based on time spent at the category with an average of 107 minutes per visitor at Sports sites in January. This was similar to the time this group spent at major categories, including the News/Information (109 minutes) and Business/Finance categories (106 minutes).

With baseball's opening day less than two weeks away, MLB.com this week introduced MLB.TV, a subscription streaming video service that allows fans to watch their favorite baseball teams when they are not covered on local television stations. MLB.com's announcement comes just weeks after the category leader, ESPN, introduced its own video product, ESPN Motion. Unlike MLB.TV, which will offer live streaming webcasts, ESPN Motion offers users free high quality video "highlights" of recent games. The service automatically downloads clips onto a user's PC and notifies the user when they are ready for viewing.

Clearly, consumer broadband adoption continues to rise, and as it does, operators of Sports sites have an increased opportunity to cash in on revenue streams and marketers with even more engaging media through which to reach potential customers. With that in mind, MLB.com and ESPN are specifically directing their offerings at Internet users with broadband access. This strategy meshes well with the targeted fan base, since fully 44% of all visitors to the Sports category access the Internet through a broadband connection (compared to 34% for the total Internet). In fact, broadband users are 31% more likely to visit Sports sites than the average Internet user. Also, more recently, comScore Media Metrix data show that as of early March, downloads of the ESPN Motion application were well on their way to crossing the one million mark, indicating that new technology is quickly becoming popular with online sports fans.

Additionally, while the market for paid online content within the Sports category is still relatively small ($30.3 million in 2002), spending grew by more than 300% versus 2001, according to an online paid content study conducted by comScore for the Online Publishers Association. Online sales of sports and fitness goods are also growing quickly: in 2002, consumers spent more than $1.1 billion online on sports and fitness related products, an increase of 61% versus 2001.

Sports at Work

For many Americans, following the sports world is as much a part of the workday routine as water cooler gossip and morning coffee. In fact, more than 37% of all visitors to the Sports category are at-Work Internet users, compared to 33% of the total Internet. Further, with a continuous view of events, scores and stats available throughout the day, at-Work surfers spent a disproportionate 40% of the total time spent at the Sports category.

With 8 million at-Work visitors, ESPN reaches more workplace surfers overall than any other Sports site. Remarkably, 56% of the total visitors to USA Today's sports content are at-Work Internet users, a higher share than at any other major sports site.

Young, male, working, connected via broadband and willing to spend online - what's not to target?