Sports viewing on the up internationally

Sports viewing internationally is on the up, with particularly strong increases in sports viewership in the UK, Italy and France between 2020 and 2022, according to research outfit Altman Solon.

For the UK market, Altman Solon found that 57% of UK respondents said they watch sports monthly, up from 45% in 2020. UK sports fans tend to watch about 3.5 hours of live sports per week.

In Italy, monthly sports viewers grew from 36% to 53% over the same period, while in France monthly viewers rose from 56% to 69%.

Highest monthly viewing rates were found in Brazil, where 79% watched sport monthly, and Colombia, where the comparable figure was 78%. Viewing had remained high in both countries through the pandemic.

In the US monthly sports viewers increased from 51% to 58% over the two-year period. In Germany the comparable figures were 45% for 2020 and 52% for 2022.

The survey found that some 21% of UK respondents would watch live games in virtual reality, while 30% of UK respondents would watch live games as if inside their favourite stadium or arena in VR.

The U.S. and Japan had the highest levels of interest in using VR for sports, with more than two-thirds of U.S. headset owners interested in watching live games in VR.

The report also noted strong interest in the acquisition of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the use of cryptocurrencies, particularly in tye US, with markedly less interest in these technologies in European countries surveyed.

The Altman Solon survey also found that viewing of highlight clips on TV and on social media runs a close second to viewing live games among sports fans.

Some 63% of sports fans globally said they regularly watched women’s sports. Percentages watching women’s sports once a month ranged from 74% in Colombia down to 46% in Japan.