Seven in Ten UK Sports Fans Are Comfortable Streaming and 52% Will Stream The 2024 UEFA Euro Cup Finals, LG Ad Solutions Study Finds

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LG Ad Solutions study highlights opportunity for brands to enhance sports engagement across streaming apps, with three-quarters of CTV audiences calling for relevant ads during live sports broadcasts

London, March 6, 2024 – LG Ad Solutions, a global leader in connected TV (CTV) and cross-screen advertising, has today released a new sports study, revealing that 72% of UK consumers are increasingly comfortable streaming live sports. Over a third use three or more streaming apps to watch live sports, with Sky Sports (57%), BBC (55%) and Prime Video (53%) being the most popular.

“With digital viewing already on the agenda for half of UK UEFA fans, and increasingly popular among wider consumers, it’s clear that the UK CTV audience has grown to a critical mass, warranting further investment. On top of this, as competition increases amongst brands to get in front of these valuable, addressable streaming audiences, innovations in the CTV space like first-screen ads, or CTV Native formats, offer a way for brands to cut through the noise and stand out against the typical 30-second ad slot,” says Edward Wale, VP, International, LG Ad Solutions.

Findings from the study Stadium to Screen: Streaming Live Sports in 2024 include:

  • The Biggest Screen in the Room is Primary for Sports Watching: Most (92%) of UK CTV viewers watch live sports on TV, indicating the powerful pull of sports on the big screen, and half (52%) already plan to stream the 2024 UEFA Euro Cup finals.
  • 2024 Summer Sports Line Up Is Prime for Opportunity: The combination of 2024’s summer sporting events, including the Olympics (which 39% will watch via streaming), the UEFA Euro Cup finals (52% will stream), and the Six Nations Rugby Tournament (39% will stream), which presents an array of opportunities for brand engagement.
  • Sports Fans are Turning to Streaming Apps:
    • The popularity of streaming apps for live sports is increasing: 14% more plan to stream the UEFA Euro Cup finals this year vs. the 2020 Euro Cup, and 16% more plan to stream the Olympics this year vs. the 2022 Winter Olympics.
    • While football dominates as the most watched sport (84% watch men’s football and 51% watch women’s), audiences hold a varied range of sports interests, following five different sports on average, with 44% watching more than five hours of live sport per week.
  • Sports Fans Are Open to Ads While Tuning In:
    • Nearly two-thirds (64%) of UK viewers pay attention to ads as they watch sports content — 7% higher for LG TV owners. while 72% are more likely to recall brands featured in such ads.
    • Eight in ten (79%) UK viewers wish ads during sports events were more relevant, and nearly as many (72%) would like ads to include game scores and updates.

The study surveyed more than 500 UK adults in January 2024 to understand behaviour and preferences around watching live sports on TV. All respondents have an internet-connected TV (CTV) and watched live sporting events on TV at least once in the past 12 months.

For more information on LG Ad Solutions and to download the full study, click here.

About LG Ad Solutions

LG Ad Solutions is a global leader in connected TV and cross-screen advertising, helping brands find hard-to-get unduplicated reach at optimal frequency across the fragmented streaming TV landscape. We bring together LG’s years of experience in delivering world-class smart TVs to consumers worldwide with big TV audience data and Video AI designed to connect brands with audiences across all screens.