Sports programming’s availability on subscription streaming platforms is resulting in new sign-ups, but that doesn’t always translate to retention, in line with new knowledge shared in Antenna’s State of Subscriptions: Sports & Streaming report.
During the NFL’s 2023 and 2024 seasons, Paramount+ noticed a mean of 117,000 each day sign-ups, a 41% greater common sign-up charge in comparison with the NFL offseason in these years, in line with the report. Peacock, in the meantime, averaged 76,000 each day sign-ups throughout these seasons, up almost 25% in comparison with the offseason durations, Antenna discovered.
Meanwhile, shoppers who cancelled Peacock following the streamer’s WWE Premium Live Events have been 40x extra more likely to watch WWE Raw on Netflix, in line with the report.
Antenna, which aggregates data from knowledge assortment companions that present shopper opt-in transaction data like digital buy and cancellation receipts, tracked continued progress in league-level sports activities providers, digital MVPDs, and regional sports activities networks as sports activities continues to develop its foothold within the digital world. Marketing Brew has rounded up among the different highlights from the report under.
New youngsters on the block: The continued curiosity in reside sports activities on streaming was demonstrated by the brand new sports activities streamer ESPN Unlimited, which picked up 1.7 million sign-ups by October since its August debut, per Antenna. Two-thirds of these sign-ups have been for bundles, just like the ESPN Unlimited/Disney+/Hulu providing, Antenna discovered. Fox One, an identical paid streamer that features entry to reside sports activities and in addition hit the market in August drew 2.3 million sign-ups by October, 60% of which got here from Amazon Channels, in line with the report.
In all, Antenna estimates that ESPN Unlimited and FOX One had a mixed 4 million sign-ups by the top of October.
The ABCDs of vMVPDs: Not all streamers fared in addition to ESPN Unlimited and Fox One did. Virtual MVPDs providing reside TV over-the-top, together with Hulu + Live TV and Fubo, noticed a 12% lower in total consumer sign-ups YoYr in Q3, Antenna discovered. With that mentioned, these sorts of providers nonetheless managed to draw 4.7 million sign-ups, which was boosted by a peak in sign-ups at the beginning of soccer season. In September, common vMVPD churn was 5.1%, down 0.4 factors YoY. YouTube TV led the pack amongst vMVPDs when it comes to market share, catching 44% of vMVPD sign-ups in Q3, in line with the report.
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Home runs: SVODs, in the meantime, continued to see progress as a consequence of varied sports activities properties, in line with the report. Apple TV noticed a serious boost from Major League Baseball: six out of the highest 10 titles on the streamer (measured by signed-up accounts reached) between April and September have been MLB video games, Antenna discovered. However, sign-ups that seen MLB video games on the streamer displayed “similar or lower retention compared to the average Apple TV sign-up.”
Similarly, Antenna attributed 238,000 Netflix sign-ups within the month of September to the livestreamed Canelo vs. Crawford boxing match on the platform that month. That spike paled compared to no less than one different reside boxing occasion on Netflix: Last 12 months’s Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson match drew about 800,000 sign-ups for the streamer, per Antenna.
Through the uprights: Football was maybe unsurprisingly a driver for sign-ups throughout streaming: NFL+ and NFL Sunday Ticket peaked to three million and a couple of.1 million subscriptions in September, in line with the report, a 37% enhance in Q3 2025 from Q3 2024 for NFL Sunday Ticket and a 22% enhance in Q3 2025 from Q3 2024 for NFL+.
Across all league sports activities providers, together with non-football providers like MLS Season Pass and UFC Fight Pass, NFL+ and NFL Sunday Ticket market share of whole Q3 sign-ups was 82%, in line with the report. Sign-ups throughout league streaming providers grew 18% YoY in Q3 2025, reaching 4.5 million whole sign-ups. Regional sports activities community sign-ups additionally grew 34% YoY in Q3.