Sling TV has reported a dramatic Sling TV viewership spike thanks to the popularity of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Viewership on the Sling TV OTT streaming video service rose nearly 350% from the start to finish of one game – the University of Arkansas Little Rock’s upset win over Purdue.
In another instance – Providence’s upset of USC thanks to a last second basket – viewing rose nearly 20% with just two seconds left.
Sling TV Viewership Spike
Overall, Sling TV viewership on the opening Thursday of the tournament, the day of these two games, was 256% higher than on non-tournament days in March, according to a news release. In addition, average viewing time on PCs, Macs and mobile devices spiked 585% on tournament days as compared to non-tournament days this month.
The ability to deliver streaming content in real-time to multiple devices and screens small and large was a significant contributing factor. Sling’s CDN provided subscribers access to all NCAA tourney games broadcast on TNT, TBS and truTV via mobile and desktop devices, as well as connected TVs.
This enabled avid fans to follow multiple games simultaneously, then zoom in on ones that piqued their interest. Use of social media and sports apps played roles in the process as well. Learning the Arkansas Little Rock – Purdue game was getting close, viewers downloaded apps and watched Arkansas Little Rock win in double overtime even if they didn’t have a Sling TV account.
Streaming sports services captured three of the top ten subscription OTT video spots in a recent survey conducted by Parks Associates. More broadly, Parks found that OTT video services were used in about 6 in 10 U.S. broadband households in a 30-day period.
