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Report finds football fans more willing to pay for live streams than other sports fans

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US market research study reveals eye-opening figures on the prices paid to watch various sports including football

A report released by US-based market research and consulting firm Parks and Associates has concluded that fans of the beautiful game willingly spend more money to access live streams than followers of other sports.

The study asked American sports fans about their willingness to pay upwards of $20 a month to watch all the games available for their preferred sport.

It found that over 60% of football fans would be "highly likely" to pay more than $20 a month to watch all games. This figure was higher than the responses given for all the other nine sports studied.

Football is harder to follow by its very nature

One key thing to note about this research is that it compares football with sports like American football (NFL) and basketball (NBA). For most other sports prevalent in the US, there is often one organisation and one competition to follow.

Football, by its very nature, is divided up into various domestic and international competitions, whose coverage is often covered by multiple broadcasters, making the sport more difficult to access on the whole.

In many cases, this leads to football fans paying over the odds to follow their favourite clubs and leagues.

American fans of Major League Soccer (MLS) can pay below this threshold to follow every game of the season in that competition - the MLS Season Pass on Apple+ costs $14.99 per month.

However, if they want to follow some of the more prestigious tournaments in Europe and South America, as many of them do, they will need to fork out for various different subscriptions to streaming services like ESPN+, Paramount+ and Peacock.

According to data published by World Soccer Talk in 2016, the Mexican top flight (Liga MX) and the English Premier League are the two most watched leagues in the US. Fans will need to spend a pretty penny to follow all of the games from either of these competitions.

US football fans not alone in paying the price

Being the most popular sport in the world, football always commands hefty prices, not only in the USA. Fans around the globe are somewhat accustomed to paying more to follow their favourite teams.

One particularly striking case of this is in the UK where Premier League fans must pay almost double what their American counterparts do to follow the English top flight.

According to data published on the EPL Price Index, British fans must pay in excess of £600 a year to access as many Premier League games as possible, and this doesn't even include all games.

Due to the infamous 3pm blackout, British fans cannot possibly watch every Premier League game legally. Matches taking place at 3pm on a Saturday are not allowed to be shown by broadcasters, leading many football obsessives to take the perilous route of illegal live streaming to keep up with the action.

Meanwhile, Premier League fans in the states can pay around £300 to get access to every single match.

Many fans in the UK are campaigning for the Premier League to launch its own dedicated live streaming platform, cutting out the middle man of huge, expensive broadcasters Sky Sports and BT Sport.

For now, the 3pm blackout lives on and the prices remain staggering, but for how long?

If you're looking for legal, high quality football live streams, look no further than Sporticos - we offer coverage of some of the biggest competitions in world football including La Liga, the UEFA Champions League and Ligue 1.

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