BLOG | by YouGov Sport

With the Tokyo Paralympics underway, we ran a YouGov Direct survey in the United States and Great Britain to understand which mediums consumers are using to follow the events. 

Cable or satellite television continues to rein supreme in both markets, but online streaming is hot on its heels, especially among consumers in the US, where broadcast partner NBC is using the event to draw new consumers to it online streaming service – Peacock. 

Almost two in five of those following the Paralympics in the US are watching the event on cable or satellite television (39%), while one in three are catching the action via live streams (32%). In an identical study we ran a few weeks ago during the Olympics, cable or satellite TV enjoyed a bigger lead over online streaming as a consumption channel. 

Radio consumption has shot up dramatically among those following the Paralympic – about 1 in 11 Americans watching the event are keeping abreast with the action via the radio (9%). In comparison, just 2% of American Olympics followers reported to have followed the mega-event on the radio. 

In Britain, where Channel 4 has broadcasting rights for both television and online streaming coverage, the supremacy of satellite/cable television as a medium is far more pronounced among followers of both events. However, like in the US, significantly fewer proportion of Paralympics followers are watching the event on TV compared to the share of Olympics followers who watched the event on TV (53% vs 63%). 

Online streaming has picked up among British followers of the Paralympics compared to followers of the Olympics. About one in five Paralympics followers (18%) are using online streams to watch the event (vs 14% of Olympics followers). News websites are the third most popular channel among both Paralympics (12%) and Olympics followers (9%). 

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Methodology: YouGov polled 1,000 GB adults online between 3:12 p.m. BST and 5:50 p.m. BST on August 25, 2021. The survey was carried out through YouGov Direct. Results are nationally representative of adults in GB. The margin of error is 5% for the overall sample. 

YouGov polled 1,000 US adults online between 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time and 6:00 p.m. Eastern Tme on August 25, 2021. The survey was carried out through YouGov Direct. Results are nationally representative of adults in US. The margin of error is 4.3% for the overall sample.