What you need to know
The FIFA World Cup dominated UK sports viewing in 2018. England’s World Cup semi-final exit to Croatia attracted a peak audience of 26.5 million viewers for ITV in July 2018, making it the most watched UK TV programme since the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony. Overall 78% of sports viewers watched live football in the last 12 months.
The battle over sports rights continues to heat up as new players make pushes for major UK sports. While BT and Sky retained the majority of rights to Premier League games (for a reduced price), Amazon also stepped onto the pitch, hinting at a potential significant future competitor for the pay-TV broadcasters. Amazon is also buying up tennis rights, including the US Open, while Eurosport has got PGA Tour rights and future rights to the Olympics. BT and Sky still reign over the paid-for sports broadcasting market in the UK and the struggles of Eleven Sports indicates how difficult it is for new entrants, but there are strong indications that the broadcasting status quo will be under threat in the coming years.
Sports broadcasters have been making some efforts to improve diversity within their coverage and make content more inclusive, such as hiring more female pundits and commentators for high-profile fixtures. However, the problem of racial biases in sports media was brought in to stark focus by a furore around a recent Instagram post from footballer, Raheem Sterling, which highlighted how many improvements are needed (and increasingly demanded) to ensure sports media is truly inclusive and caters for those beyond the stereotypical straight, white male fan.
Products covered in this Report
This Report examines how UK adults experience sport via the media, including live sport and other sports-related content, such as match reviews and social media coverage.
The Report explores how people watch/listen to/read sports content via the TV, internet, newspapers and magazines. The primary focus of the Report is, however, on TV and internet coverage.
Watching sport in-person at an event venue is not considered within this Report.
