![Many sports fans are unhappy with how much it costs to watch their games, an AP-NORC poll finds [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/4jhlrqdihkpf1-1024x576.png "Many sports fans are unhappy with how much it costs to watch their games, an AP-NORC poll finds [OC]")
I'm Karena, an engagement editor at the AP. A new poll finds sports fans are likelier to use a combination of streaming services and traditional TV options to access their favorite teams. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows this complicated and often expensive patchwork is common for many sports fans and leaves them beholden to multiple platforms and subscriptions if they want to keep up with their teams. AP reporter Maya Sweedler did the reporting, AP reporter Linley Sanders made the data visualization and our data source is from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
And here's a bit from the story:
For many dedicated sports fans, keeping up with their favorite teams has become a juggling act. Activate an NFL package in August, unsubscribe after the Super Bowl and before the NBA playoffs get underway, then subscribe to the NBA’s service. Grudgingly keep paying the cable bill because it’s the only way to get the local baseball team. Throw in a subscription to ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service for college football.
This patchwork of expensive subscriptions, cable packages and password shares is common for many sports fans, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and it leaves them beholden to multiple platforms at a cost no one seems to like.
About 4 in 10 people who follow sports “extremely” or “very” closely use cable or satellite TV and a sports-only streaming platform, according to the poll, compared with about 2 in 10 people who follow sports “somewhat” closely.
Posted by APnews
19 Comments
It is hard being a fan of multiple sports to now have to basically get 2000s cable to see your team play. Or go to your local bar. Even then, it can be more to watch at a bar. Essentially, it is very frustrating.
Am I doing the math wrong, or are there sports fans who have both YoutubeTV/HuluLive or similar, and also cable TV? What would be the purpose of that?
This graph is missing a crucial (I think) piece of information:
Percent who actually go and attend the games in person.
I stopped going to NHL games because I got tired of me, the thousandaire, having to pay a small hill of cash for two seats, parking, and a beer, to billionaires so I can watch multi-millionaires play a kid’s game.
It was the league strikes that really hammered it home.
MLB still slips under my price radar, but I don’t live near any MLB teams. For many fans, I think. they go streaming because they can’t afford to go to the games.
I probably spend more money on minor leagues now. AAA baseball, QMJHL, OHL, that sort of thing. The sport is nearly as good, and there’s less lining the pockets of people far richer than I.
How much are people paying for sports breaks on their ads platforms?
That’s weird, I pay nothing to watch sports 🏴☠️
Imo the only good deal I have found for watching sports is F1 TV if I am being honest. $75 to be able to watch every F1, F2, F3, and F1A session (and trust me, some of the junior series races have been far better than the F1 races this season).
But on top of being able to watch the current season you can go back and watch historic races and even entire previous seasons going back at least a decade iirc (I rewatched from 2017-2023 during the winter break before this season).
I wish that sports leagues would do this. I would 100% pay $75-125 a year to be able to watch every EPL match from the last decade, because I love going back and rewatching games and studying them (been working on getting my coaching license, so I enjoy watching how teams set up their tactics, and how those tactics flow throughout the match).
Half of sports fans are dissatisfied with the cost of streaming their games. I’d wager about half of *any* group is dissatisfied with what they pay for just about *anything*, shit’s gotten expensive.
It’s not just the cost. It’s that it has actively gotten harder to access the games.
To watch the NFL Sunday ticket you need Sunday ticket, but you also need either a cable or YouTube tv subscription. For me, I would have to literally switch inputs on my TV to change to the local game.
Then on Thursday you need a different app altogether.
That’s not to mention the playoff game on peacock and other games on Netflix.
I appreciate this graphic and the information you put out with it.
I am not a sports fan. I like sports but I don’t have favorite teams or players, I watch a sporting even every few months, etc.
I get very frustrated by having to subsidize sports watchers. I say subsidize because the streaming packages have started to automatically add sports channels & espn to your package even if you never watch them. Sports channels are known to be the highest cost channels, so they raise the price of everyone’s bills.
For example, I have Hulu & Disney. I’ve never watched sports on them, never will, but they added sports and espn over time and had to raise subscription prices to offset the licensing fees.
We should be able to buy whatever channels and packages we want, not be forced into paying for sports we don’t watch.
I’ve just stopped watching since I refuse to get peacock or paramount or Hulu+ or whatever it is you need to buy to get whatever one random sport it has exclusively – I can never remember which and it will never matter.
The only sport I watch is F1 these days because it has a dedicated app, all the coverage, and decades of films and race replays. Nothing else can touch it in terms of depth and breadth of coverage, making feel like a rare deal in this day and age
teams and leagues have decided that if a quarter of people are willing to pay an exorbitant amount, that’s more profitable than 100% having access at less than a quarter the cost. The entire American economy is this way now. Inequality destroys society.
For the love of god can everyone stop supporting team sports. I don’t even know what makes the individual teams special if they trade players with each other like livestock. The owners are mostly obscenely wealthy yet they threaten to leave their beloved town if they aren’t delivered a new taxpayer funded game venue every 15-20 years or so. The commercials are incessant and as this article mentions one needs several subscriptions to watch the games even at all. It’s a colossal waste of time. Obviously I am not a sports fan.
Pro tip: don’t pay to watch, price goes down, life improves.
Ya if there is something I really want to see I’ll go to the pub.
There is no point in getting a cable package for a year for one season of games I’ll catch maybe 30% of the games. Plus then I go online see the highlights anyways I am not so sure its really worth it
Plus up here it was like “Oh you want to stream the game… okay pay for cable now pay for a streaming package you gotta login using your cable account anyways”
The issue is the league & cable platforms bundle this stuff that you may have to pay for two cable packages to get your local team but then you may not get every game because another region has the broadcast rights.
Leagues are making bank off the broadcast rights but that leaves the cable providers to make a profit… which leads to predatory practices… and cable companies don’t care because a lot of people treat cable as “well thats what it costs” and never challenge it.. meanwhile you could save like 100/month just opt’n out.
If they just made a cheap subscription to all the games and also showed the tv ads (to cover their bottom line) they would have happy fans and wouldn’t have to worry about all the piracy and illegal streaming
“Dedicated sports fans” most of them are couch potatoes who couldn’t run a quarter mile.
I’d watch baseball nonstop except my team’s games are mostly streamed and I’m not paying.
I hate professional sports. I cant believe people pay extra to watch that bullshit
Just like everything else, it’s getting ridiculously expensive and unaffordable.
Just give us pay per view. I’d happily pay a few bucks for the games I really want to see.
But I’d also end up saving a few bucks, which is of course the last thing they want.