• by Felicia Greiff , December 4, 2015

Ooyala’s newest study set out to find out which rival NFL cities watch the most digital sports video, thereby winning “StreamingBowl 2015."

After analyzing billions of video data points, Ooyala found the winners: Green Bay, Wisc., and Pittsburgh, with fans in each city spending 69% of online video time watching all kinds of sports.

The study suggested Green Bay’s cold weather could be a reason fans are indoors and connected to devices.

Research also showed that while New York was No. 1 in terms of total online video plays, the city had the least-engaged sports audience on a per capita basis.

Ooyala’s principal analyst Jim O’Neill said in an email that knowing how audiences engage with videos is critical to publishers looking to monetize content in an ecosystem, especially sports, where the audiences and opportunity are huge. He added that data helps dictate when and where it’s most profitable to post premium sports content online to maximize viewership and therefore boost ad revenue.

“We’re seeing such rapid changes in the way users consume video that to try and navigate the online video business without granular analytics is like trying to cross a forest without any kind of map,” O’Neill said. “You might make it, but having a map is way better."

The study calculated each city’s share of sports video plays, as a percentage of all online video plays during five football Sundays: Sept.13 through Oct. 11, 2015.