Online Now Tops Print for Sports, Says Kantar Media Report

While sports fans prefer to follow their favorite teams on television, online is now the clear second choice, reports Perform, SportsBusiness Group, and Kantar Sport (a part of Kantar Media). The companies surveyed 16 markets -- Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, the U.A.E, and the U.S. -- and found that the amount of time sports fans spend following coverage online has shot up in the last year. In a global first, online is now more important than print for sports coverage in all surveyed markets (except Germany, where print and online are tied).

Highlights from the report, entitled "Know The Fan: The Global Sports Media Consumption Report 2014," show that 48 percent of U.S. sports fans go online to read sports news, soccer is the most popular sport in 9 of the surveyed markets, and 56 percent of U.K. sports fans use a second screen device to access live text commentary while watching a game on television. In the U.S. 49 percent of sports fans follow NFL coverage.

Fans are getting that content with a variety of devices: roughly three-quarters access content using computers or mobile devices at least one per week.

The report is available at Know the Fan 2014. Registration is required.

Those interested in sports online video should attend the upcoming Streaming Forum conference in London. A first day keynote address from BT will look at multiscreen sports delivery, while a second day keynote from TV 2 Sumo will show how the Norwegian broadcaster streamed the Sochi Olympics to over-the-top viewers.