Baseball may be known as America’s pastime, but soccer is the nation’s fastest growing sport with an estimated 85 million soccer fans in the U.S, according to a recent report from Telemundo. With the 2023 Major League Soccer (MLS) season kicking off this weekend, we looked back at recent Antenna data from the 2022 World Cup to see how soccer drives subscriber acquisition for streaming services.
The 2022 World Cup aired on FOX (broadcast and FS1), but was available for streaming on Peacock (Spanish language only) and through vMVPDs. Looking at Daily Sign-ups, both Peacock and YouTube TV saw increases compared to the 8-week benchmark.
YouTube TV saw an increase in Sign-Ups 1.5x greater than the benchmark at the start of each stage of World Cup play. While it only offered Spanish-language broadcasts, Peacock saw more acquisition than vMVPDs. The service also ran a Black Friday promotion during the Group Stage.
Soccer is already offered on multiple streaming services, including the English Premier League on Peacock, UEFA Champions League on Paramount+, and the US Men's and Women's National Team matches on HBO Max. Apple TV is the most recent service to add soccer content with the addition of MLS Season Pass for the 2023 season.
Definitions and details on Antenna’s methodology can be found here.
Brendan Brady is a Content Strategy Associate at Antenna, a measurement and analytics company providing insight into purchase behavior and subscription metrics across the new media landscape.
