Nielsen: Asian American audiences helping to drive sports viewing and streaming

Beyond their widely cited overall viewership numbers, media research company Nielsen conducts in-depth analyses of specific demographics. Their latest, published Wednesday morning, is titled “Breakthrough ROI: Investing in Asian American audiences and media,” and it has several particular sports insights into Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) consumers.

Here are a few of those from a Nielsen release:

AANHPI audiences are watching more live sports than ever—spending 15% more time viewing than the general public and 33% more likely to subscribe to sports-specific streaming platforms. Sports podcast listenership is also growing fast, up 28% between 2022 and 2024.

These audiences are playing a vital role in amplifying major moments in sports, from the 2024 World Series—where Asian American viewership spiked 146%—to surging interest in women’s basketball. AANHPI viewership of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship jumped nearly 70% year-over-year, while the WNBA Draft saw a 240% increase. This year, the WNBA will see Natalie Nakase become the league’s first Asian American head coach, leading the new Golden State Valkyries, as players like Te-Hina Paopao, of Polynesian heritage, continue to build momentum with fans.

There’s also growing excitement around global sports with strong Asian roots, especially cricket. Now 13% of U.S. adults identify as cricket fans, fueled in part by the country’s fast-growing Indian population. The 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S., drew record crowds, and cricket’s Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028 promises even greater visibility.

As fandoms grow, so does the desire for representation: 37% of AANHPI sports viewers say they want more culturally relevant advertising during games—signaling a clear opportunity for brands to show up with authenticity.

While the viewership numbers are interesting, the 33% “more likely to subscribe to sports-specific streaming platforms” is perhaps a key takeaway for media businesses. ESPN already has one of those with ESPN+, and they’re set to launch a much larger “Flagship” service (also including ESPN linear content) this fall.

And while they’re not fully “sports-specific,” Amazon, CBS/Paramount Global, NBCUniversal, WBD, Google, and Apple are all heavily invested in sports content for their streaming platforms (Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+, Max, YouTube TV, and Apple TV+ respectively), and Netflix is starting to get there too. Fox also appears to be launching a news and sports streaming service soon. That’s to say nothing of current fully sports-specific platforms, including FloSports. Thus, this demographic could be a key target for all those companies, which might lead to interesting decisions in both rights acquisition and programming.