Parks Associates, a market research and consulting firm, released information that demonstrates sports fans’ willingness to pay more than $20 per month for all games.

 

Over 60% of soccer fans put themselves in the ‘high likelihood’ to pay more than $20 per month for all games. This is the highest of the 10 sports included. However, something interesting to note is that the other sports are specific leagues. For instance, Parks Associates used the NHL, NBA, NFL or MMA. Soccer is simply just soccer.

 

One way to explain Parks Associates’ data is to say soccer fans are simply used to paying more to stream, and they want it that way. Well, soccer fans do not want to pay more, they simply want to have access to more competitions. Consequently, they are more comfortable paying for it.

 

Looking holistically at OTT sports rights in the United States, Parks Associates expects it to boom. In other words, streaming will become more frequent and natural for many providers, regardless of sport. MLS and Apple are one indicator, as is Amazon’s purchase of the Thursday Night Football rights in the NFL.