Live sports and the state of streaming

For the first time, one of the crown jewels of American sports events will be available to stream without a subscription through devices like your Roku player or Roku TV, marking a significant milestone in the development of streaming. In the last year, we’ve seen exponential growth with 50% of all US homes streaming video on their televisions.* Roku customers alone streamed a whopping 5.5B hours in 2015 – up 73% over 2014.

Watching live sports on a streaming device is indicative of the major shifts in television viewing. Only a few years ago, people might have laughed at the idea that live sports, including football’s biggest contest, could be streamed. Of course, it’s widely known that Roku customers have access to a vast array of entertainment content – more than 300,000 movies and TV episodes and 3,000 streaming channels. But sports has also taken off on the Roku platform, including ESPN access through Sling TV, more than 175 channels dedicated to sports, and of course, the availability of live events such as the big game via CBS Sports.

Roku is dedicated to the belief that all TV will be streamed. That may have seemed crazy when we shipped the first Netflix player back in 2008, but as the number of channels available on the Roku platform continues to grow it’s clear that streaming is continuing to reshape how we watch TV. From HBO NOW and SHOWTIME to some of today’s most important live sports events, it’s thrilling to see how much of the most dramatic, popular and exciting content is already available to stream today. We look forward to bringing you even more in 2016.

Happy Streaming!

^{*Leichtman Research Group, 2014}