Despite the growing wealth of content options available to consumers, few rival the influence of live sports, as evidenced by the boom in NFL viewership this season, which culminates with Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, 2022. And while consumers have been watching professional football on TV for decades, connectivity is playing an increasingly important role in how they watch today, as 28% of all U.S. TV households now use broadband connections for their TV viewing.
Le case a banda larga (Broadband-only, BBO) rappresentano la tipologia predominante di "cord cutter", ovvero le case che ricevono la programmazione televisiva senza accedere ai servizi tradizionali via cavo o via satellite (l'altra tipologia utilizza un'antenna fisica, tipicamente digitale, per accedere alla programmazione). In totale, il 44% delle famiglie ha tagliato il cavo o non ha mai avuto servizi tradizionali via cavo o via satellite (cord nevers). Cinque anni fa, l'81% delle famiglie statunitensi accedeva ai contenuti televisivi attraverso i tradizionali decoder via cavo o satellite.
While the shift is a clear indicator of how Americans are changing the ways they consume content, BBO households are leading the charge where sports are concerned, especially during this year’s NFL playoffs. In fact, viewers 25-54 in BBO homes across LPM+PPM markets accounted for 17%-18% of the TV audience for the divisional playoff games on Jan. 22 and 23. Fast forward a week to the Conference Championship and that number was just under 20%. Comparatively, between Jan. 6 and Jan. 23, viewers 25-54 in BBO homes accounted for approximately 10% of the non-sports programming on the three networks that carried the divisional and conference championship playoffs. But BBO homes are interested in more than just professional football. Last year, for example, persons 25-54 in BBO homes made up 11% of all NBC Olympic viewing minutes.
In addition to highlighting the importance of sports programming to BBO homes, the data also illustrates how BBO homes use their connectivity for much more than just streaming movies from over-the-top services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. It’s true that connectivity has driven massive growth in content that Americans are streaming, especially during the pandemic, but broadband usage was growing among U.S. households well before COVID-driven lockdowns began. And that growth is accelerating.
In January 2022, more than 83% of U.S. homes had at least one TV connected device—that’s up 10 percentage points from January 2020 (74%). And while increasing connected TV device penetration has also fostered the growth of broadband-only (BBO) homes in the U.S., which now account for 28% of all TV households, penetration in some markets is higher than 36%. Importantly, BBO isn’t just prominent in major city-anchored DMAs. In fact, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced new funding of as much as $1.2 billion through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to expand broadband access in 32 states. Through this funding, 23 providers will bring broadband service to more than 1 million locations.
Sebbene l'annuncio della FCC parli di investimenti futuri, possiamo già vedere l'impatto della connettività a banda larga in mercati notevolmente più piccoli rispetto a grandi città come Los Angeles, New York e Chicago. Infatti, se consideriamo i telespettatori delle partite di campionato e di division, i DMA più importanti per la visione di BBO sono di natura più rurale rispetto a New York e Los Angeles.
In un contesto di crescente ricchezza di opzioni mediatiche, Internet a banda larga si è affermato come mezzo per accedere a una serie di contenuti video, non solo alla programmazione dei servizi di streaming. Infatti, le famiglie che ricevono la programmazione televisiva attraverso connessioni a banda larga superano ora quelle che ricevono la programmazione attraverso le antenne via etere (case di sola trasmissione). La programmazione sportiva è sempre stata uno dei principali motori della visione programmata e su appuntamento, ma il forte coinvolgimento nei confronti dei contenuti sportivi suggerisce che anche le famiglie più inclini a consumare i contenuti in base ai propri orari guarderanno la programmazione programmata quando si tratta della programmazione che stanno cercando.
