Mr. Screens Gets Nostalgic: I vividly remember being at Google Zeitgeist in 2012 and watching the Red Bull space skydive reach 8M concurrent viewers. I was already streaming live sports (Slingbox RIP, etc.) and felt strongly it was shifting fast. I was completely wrong on the timing front. Sports is weird because long contracts (8+ years, etc.) can lock in exclusivity for linear TV. Streaming-exclusive events like the Paul/Tyson fight on Netflix are interesting because they show how much reach streaming can deliver.
Setting the table: In my opinion, there are four major events (in the U.S.) that explain the rise of streaming live events:
1) Red Bull Stratos on YouTube (2012)
2) Game of Thrones Season 4 premiere on HBO Go (2014)
3) AFC Wildcard Game on Peacock (2023)
4) Paul/Tyson fight on Netflix (2024)
Five big questions re: streaming live events:
1) How many people watch sports on digital/streaming?
2) How important is sports to overall TV advertising?
3) How many people watched the Paul/Tyson fight?
4) How was the fight’s viewership measured?
5) Was the Paul/Tyson fight the most streamed live event ever?
Big question #1: How many people watch sports on digital/streaming?
Quick answer: 105M total people (65% of total sports viewers) watch through a digital/streaming channel.
Big question #2: How important is sports to overall TV advertising?
Quick answer: ≈ 30% of all linear TV ad impressions run during sports content.
Bottom line: Sports is moving to streaming. The question is whether these ad impressions will stay in the traditional ecosystem (NBC → Peacock) or move to native streamers (NBC → Netflix). The latter scenario is an extinction-level event for traditional media companies (NBCUniversal, Paramount, etc.).
Big question #3: How many people watched the Paul/Tyson fight?
Quick answer: According to Netflix, 108M total viewers with an average audience of 65M.
Viewership for Paul/Tyson fight by geography (% of total):
1) Domestic – 38M (59%)
2) International – 27M (41%)
Wow: The fight delivered huge global numbers for Netflix, hitting #1 in 78 countries.
Big question #4: How was the fight’s viewership measured?
Key point: Similar to our story last week on Yellowstone, Nielsen did not measure the Paul/Tyson fight. Netflix utilized a combination of internal metrics and TVision.
Quote from Katie Campione – TV Reporter @ Deadline:
“TVision uses 5,000 connected TV devices to measure and extrapolate that audience data. Total viewers is a tricky measurement in the streaming era, and it’s one that Netflix doesn’t often report, so it’s difficult to compare this data to anything else.”
Quote from Michael Mulvihill – President, Insights and Analytics @ Fox Sports:
“Nielsen is fully capable of producing a U.S.-only viewership number for Netflix on a next day basis, but they can’t do it if Netflix doesn’t ask for it. And why would NFLX ask for it when the entire internet runs with their worldwide number no questions asked?”
Big question #5: Was the Paul/Tyson fight the most streamed live event ever?
Quick answer: Yesish, depending on how close in methodology the Netflix/TVision numbers compare to Peacock/Nielsen. If they are close to apples-to-apples, this had up to a 65% larger audience than last year’s AFC Wildcard game on Peacock.
Most viewed live-streaming events in the United States:
1) Paul/Tyson fight on Netflix (2024) – 38M
2) AFC Wildcard Game on Peacock (2023) – 23M
Mr. Screens’ Crystal Ball: Netflix will stream two NFL games on Christmas day that will comfortably surpass the 2024 AFC Wildcard game on Peacock. Leagues will realize streamers offer both greater reach and deeper pockets. This will change everything.
Flashback: The Puck Drops on the Future of Sports on TV
