America's Youth Doesn't Have An Appetite For Live Sports Broadcasts

Tuesday, December 20th, 2022 -- 12:31 PM

Axios Sports - 33% of U.S. Gen Zers (ages 13-25) don't watch sports at all, compared to 24% of U.S. adults, per two Morning Consult surveys run last month.

Gen Z is also more likely to stream sports (32%) than watch on linear TV (28%), a shift from the 2020 survey when they still preferred linear (32%) over streaming (22%).   Adults, meanwhile, watch nearly twice as much sports on traditional TV (47%) as they stream (24%).

Leagues like the NFL (Amazon) and MLB (Apple) have signed streaming-centric deals in recent years to meet young fans where they are.

Simply getting in front of cord-cutting Gen Zers isn't going to turn them into fans — not if they aren't genuinely interested.

26% of Gen Zers said "no ability to watch" was a reason they hadn't tuned into a sporting event on TV in a few years, so the streaming push will help reach that cohort.

But a whopping 73% of Gen Zers said a reason they hadn't watched was because "I'm not interested in sports." It's imperative that leagues figure out how to get that number down.

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