FITE: “Boxing the most popular PPV sport”

FITE, the digital streaming combat sports platform, has released its inaugural State of the Industry Report, which includes exclusive data on viewership, geographic breakdown of fans who typically stream pay-per-view sporting events, how they are tuning in, a ranking of popular streaming devices and preferred combat sporting events – from boxing and MMA to pro wrestling and bare-knuckle fighting.

“The streaming space, particularly sports streaming, is huge right now and growing quickly – every few weeks we’re seeing a new provider emerge,” said Kosta Jordanov, CEO of FITE. “With so many streaming services to choose from, we’ve been wanting to issue a report leveraging some of the great data we have that will benefit both viewers and providers, as it gives an inside look at popular events, geographic regions and how viewers are actually streaming PPV events.”

FITE – which streams over 1,000 combat sporting events a year – analysed data generated from PPV combat sports events its digital platform offers to its 1.6 million registered viewers. The report findings include information like:

• Which viewers are tuning in

• • Female viewership is on the rise: 87 per cent of combat sports viewers are male, but female viewership accounts for 13 per cent of total viewers, with two-thirds of users being between the ages of 25-44 years old

• Battle of the streaming devices

• • Casting to TV streaming devices such as Chromecast from mobile apps increased viewing time by over 40 per cent
  • While North America prefers to stream PPV via TV platforms, Europe and South America prefer to tune in via mobile and computer: TV platforms in North America capture 50 per cent of the digital viewing time, followed by Europe/Australia (30-35 per cent) and South America (24 per cent)

• • • People in Europe and Australia spend 50 per cent more time watching PPVs on the computer and phone compared to TV platforms

• What events viewers are watching

• • Boxing is the most popular PPV sport to watch: Nearly 55 per cent of PPV combat sports buyers are interested in boxing, with 40 per cent interested in pro wrestling and nearly 40 per cent interested in MMA