Viewers Watching Illegal Livestreaming of Sports Content, Says Parks
Some 12 percent of U.S. broadband households use a livestreaming platform like Facebook Live or Periscope, said a Wednesday Parks Associates report based on Q3 data. Nearly a fifth of consumers ages 18-24 engage in livestreaming activity, but livestreaming of…
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TV shows and sports skews older, which Parks says indicates more older viewers “might be using these solutions to access illegal streams of content.” Eight percent of broadband households have used livestreaming apps to watch TV shows, and 7 percent have used them to watch sports, said analyst Brett Sappington. Though some sports franchises and leagues are livestreaming their content legitimately, “much of the produced content on these live-streaming platforms remains unsanctioned,” Sappington said. More than a third of households that livestream TV shows or sports said programming was available, but they opted for livestreaming “because they did not want to pay for access,” said the analyst. Another quarter of survey respondents said they chose livestreaming because programming prices are too high, he said. The figures represent less than 5 percent of U.S. broadband households, but Sappington called that a “significant portion” of viewers watching app-based livestreams. Other findings: 18 percent of “cord-nevers” use credentials of someone outside their household to access an online service, while 7 percent of pay-TV subscribers do, and 45 percent of broadband households are “very concerned” about receiving a virus or malware when downloading or streaming video.