Sports fandom to generate £13bn for UK economy by 2034
Sports fandom is expected to generate an additional £3bn a year for the UK economy by 2034, rising from the £10bn it generated in 2023, a study by research consultancy Public First commissioned by Sky found.
According to the Game Changing: How Sport Makes Us Happier, Healthier and Better Connected research, two-thirds of UK adults actively described themselves as sports fans, with a quarter saying that sports are “an important part” of their identity.
Sports have become increasingly important to TV broadcasters as one of the few reliable sources of live entertainment that still regularly draw large audiences.
As the study found, 74% of UK adults said they consume sport-related content via broadcast TV, the largest of any media channel, ahead of both sports websites and apps (42%) and social media (39%).
Just over a third (35%) reported consuming sports content via streaming services.
However, streaming services have in recent years begun aggressively bidding for a larger slice of the sports rights pie, in part causing the cost of rights deals to balloon for major leagues including the English Premier League and the US basketball and American football leagues.
The survey also found a notable uptick in interest in women’s sports in the past year. Although 48% of Brits hadn’t changed their viewing habits for women’s sport, a third (32%) said they increased their women’s sport consumption “a little more”, while 11% said they did “much more”.
Meanwhile, the report suggested that Sky Sports underpinned almost £4bn in economic activity, including an estimated £1.1bn in extra revenue for British pubs. That is equivalent to an additional 230m pints of beer.
An estimated 26.7m people were found to have watched Sky Sports on TV last year.
Sky Group CEO Dana Strong said: “Sport is an invaluable part of our society. It builds stronger communities, promotes inclusivity and enhances our national pride. At Sky, we’re incredibly proud of our role in the sector. Over the next decade, our goal is to help bring millions more fans across all sections of our society to the benefits of sport.”