Datafolha: 62% of men use the web to watch sports – 06/29/2023 – Tech

When the World Cup was held in Qatar, at the end of 2022, something new took everyone by surprise – it wasn’t the ban on beer or Cristiano Ronaldo stopping in Portugal’s reserve. With streamer Casimiro Miguel at the helm, CazéTV showed several World Cup matches on digital platforms, free of charge, always with significant audience numbers.

When addressing consumer habits and behavior on the internet, this year’s Datafolha national survey included the topic “watching live football matches or other sports”, with an affirmative response from 43% of participants.

However, in the stratification by gender, no other item presented as much discrepancy as this one: 62% of the male audience against 25% of the female audience. Even among men, the percentage was above other activities considered more everyday, such as sharing photos on social networks (57%) or even exchanging emails (52%).

By age group, the youngest profile also represents the majority among consumers of live sport over the internet: 58% of people between 16 and 24 years old, against 29% for people over 60.

Datafolha surveyed 2,010 people aged 16 or over across the country. Only responses from respondents who said they accessed the internet (1,908) were considered. The margin of error is three percentage points.

CazéTV was already broadcasting before the World Cup, but it took advantage of a cost-cutting policy by Globo, which previously had exclusive rights, to partner with FIFA through LiveMode and pierce the desired bubble of World Cup broadcasts.

“For the first time, a World Cup is being designed for the digital public, for the tools, with the language and the people chosen for this purpose. It is unprecedented and historic”, commented Mauricio Portela, partner of LiveMode, on the eve of the competition .

At CazéTV, the transmission style mixes the traditional open TV (with a narrator, commentator and field reporter) with the reactions that made the streamer Casimiro famous. He constantly appears in a small window in the video, reacting with expressions and his typical comments, closer to the relaxed fan than a ball analyst. Internet users can also interact live, leaving their comments.

During the Worlds, the digital platform broke consecutive records with simultaneous views on Youtube and Twitch. In the elimination of Brazil for Croatia, CazéTV reached 6.2 million peak connected devices. Currently, only on Youtube, there are 8.28 million subscribers.

In the post-World Cup world, the platform continued well with Carioca Championship games, surpassing 5 million Internet users connected simultaneously. In this Brazilian, he signed an agreement with Atlhetico-PR for the club’s home matches (but these are not free, they cost R$ 1.99 per month).

Even Galvão Bueno began to navigate this ocean after finishing his long stint on Globo in 2022. The most famous announcer in the country debuted the GB Channel, on Youtube, with the transmission on the digital platform of the friendly match between Brazil and Morocco, in March, reaching a peak 1.5 million Internet users.

The internet has made the broadcast pie much bigger, and with more slices. Contrary to what happened a few years ago, today a competition can be shown in different players, including open and closed TV and the internet, including streaming channels.

In the distribution of sporting events, Star+, streaming from the Disney group, includes ESPN transmissions, with the right to many exclusive games of different sports on the platform; HBO Max, from the Warner group, features the traditional Champions League duels; Amazon Prime shows NBA and WNBA games; and Paramount+ has exclusive Libertadores and Sul-Americana matches. Not to mention Globoplay, a player from the Globo group.

At Paramount+, according to Vice President of Streaming in Latin America Jose Calderoni, “Sports is becoming vital to our audience and our business, especially on our streaming platforms.”

For the executive, the good performance of Brazilian clubs in Libertadores and Sul-Americana has collaborated with the approximation of subscribers to the platform. and, “While we can’t provide detailed metrics, we can confirm that the inclusion of live sports content attracts new audiences and increases engagement for our existing Brazilian users.”

According to the advice of the Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes HBO Max in its portfolio, “live sports is one of the main pillars of the brand, bringing excellent results since our launch, always being among the most purchased and most watched titles on HBO Max.”

“The competitions as a whole show great results and help to increase the subscriber base throughout the season, and some key games, including classics, decisive clashes and exclusive matches on the platform, raise these numbers to levels”, he adds. .

In addition to the Champions League —the icing on the cake—, HBO Max shows matches from the Paulista Championship (men’s and women’s), always with transmissions from TNT Sports, a channel that is part of the group.

And soon the Fifa and CazéTV partnership will be back to broadcast the Women’s World Cup, which takes place between July and August. “Being able to broadcast the second Cup in less than a year on CazéTV is really cool. We’re putting together a really cool team, which lives the day-to-day of women’s football (…) I’m looking forward to living a World Cup again”, added Casimiro, announcing Fernanda Gentil’s participation in the competition.