Half of Viewers Use Connected Devices While Eyeing Sports TV

When it comes to watching sports on TV these days, it’s increasingly a second-screen and social play, according to a recent study from Sporting News Media.

According to the group’s “US: Know the Fan Report 2014,” nearly half of surveyed sports fans maintain that they use Internet-connected devices while watching games and events on television.

Forty-four percent of these second-screeners like to catch up on what’s happening with other games being played via live text commentary and live scores, while 38% access non-sports related content. Another 21% communicate with friends through a second-screen device about the sports event on TV, compared to 20% watching clips and highlights of other games being played and 14% posting comments to social networking platforms about the game/event they’re engaged with it.

According to Sporting News Media’s fourth study of its kind, 2014 has marked a significant increase in the number of fans following sports via social networking platforms as over one-third of respondents said they consume sports on these platforms. Social networking fans are primarily younger fans, with 65% in the 18-to-34 set.

While mobile consumption of sports content has doubled to 42% from 21% in 2011, 65% of the surveyed sports fans indicated that they still primarily use a computer/laptop to access online sports content. Almost two in five (38%) access content on these devices at least once daily, according to the survey. Sporting News Media’s research found that smartphones are more widely used (34%) than tablets (22%) for the second year running, with the former’s usage growing 10 percentage points since 2013, versus a 3-percentage point advance for the latter.