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.
仅使用宽带（BBO）的家庭是 "断线者 "的主要类型--这些家庭在接收电视节目时不使用传统的有线电视或卫星服务（另一种类型使用物理天线，通常是数字天线来接收节目）。总共有 44% 的家庭已经断线或从未使用过传统的有线电视或卫星服务（cord nevers）。五年前，81% 的美国电视家庭通过传统的有线电视或卫星接收盒获取电视内容。
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.
虽然联邦通信委员会的声明是针对未来的投资，但我们已经可以看到宽带连接对那些明显小于洛杉矶、纽约和芝加哥等大城市的市场的影响。事实上，当我们查看季后赛分区赛和冠军赛的收视率时，BBO 收视率最高的地区市场明显比纽约和洛杉矶更具农村性质。
在日益丰富的媒体选择中，宽带互联网已成为获取一系列视频内容的手段，而不仅仅是流媒体服务的节目。事实上，现在通过宽带连接接收电视节目的电视家庭已经超过了通过空中天线接收节目的家庭（仅限广播的家庭）。体育节目一直是预约收看的主要驱动力，但体育内容的显著参与度表明，即使是更倾向于按计划消费内容的家庭，也会在他们正在寻找节目时收看预约节目。
