Coronavirus: lack of sports leads viewers, as well as broadcasters, to question services
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Editor
| 10 April 2020

One of the first causalities of the global Covid-19 outbreak was live TV sports and the continued lack of them has not only led broadcasters to withhold rights payments but is now also leading pay-TV subscribers to question whether to re-sign contracts.

Following reports that leading sports streaming service DAZN has informed the English Premier League that it would to defer payments of the rights that it holds due to the suspension of competition, and indeed the Premier League notifying the football clubs that they could face a bill of around £726 million if the season is cancelled, US cord-cutting resource Kill The Bill is reporting that without sports, US cable TV customer will stop subscribing to services.

To gauge the impact of live sporting event cancellations on cable subscribers, Kill The Bill surveyed of 1003 cable subscribers and found fundamentally that the longer live sports stay off the air, the more likely subscribers will cancel. Two-thirds of cable subscribers say live sports was a significant reason for their subscribing. Yet 44% of them said lack of live sports could impact whether they keep their cable subscription and more worrying, nearly a third of cable subscribers said they'd consider cancelling if sports don't return by 1 June.

Access to the NFL was of particular importance. A third of cable subscribers said that they could cancel if NFL season was postponed with 15% of respondents very likely to pull the plus if the forthcoming NFL season was postponed. Looking at all major sports in general, 12.6% and 19.2% said it was very likely said it was very likely and somewhat likely respectively that they would cancel by 1 June.

Given the findings that it revealed, Kill The Bill pondered as to whether the current pandemic could act as the final nail in the coffin for pay-TV as it is currently recognised. It said: “After all, we know that live sports is the major driver behind people subscribing to cable. We also know cord cutters care most about content and cost – and most other content can be found much cheaper through on-demand services like Netflix and Hulu. But when it comes to sports, viewers want to watch as the events happen.”