Nielsen Sports: Football fans expand interests across sports and lifestyle

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Many South Africans would agree thatsport is the nation’s great unifier,bringing people from all walks of life together to support a common team or hero. With local sports viewership steadily gaining momentum,  brands, media owners and rightsholders need accurate data on which content will likely make meaningful connections with South African fans.

Nielsen Fan Insights offers extensive sports and lifestyle data for South Africa and Africa, with the ability to specifically highlight fan interests, media consumption  patterns and engagement platforms used across multiple sporting codes and lifestyle interests that are relevant to client needs. The data is available via a subscription-based dashboard, tailored data runs or in report form. Clients can use the data to address specific objectives such as marketing optimisation, sponsorship evaluation or enhancing audience engagement strategies.

Annalie Watt, Nielsen Sports SA’s Strategic Director, revealed the following sports and lifestyle insights from this year’s study:

“The NFI SA Football report details that football fans are expanding their interests, with the fan count analysis clearly showing that more football fans are also fans of more other sports in 2024 than 2023. This shows a significant increase in multi-sport engagement. While only 4% of football enthusiasts focus solely on football, the majority follow several other sports, suggesting a trend towards audience diversification.

“NFI SA football fans are very keen sports bettors. This high level of interest and engagement with sports betting is likely the underlying factor driving the increased levels of interest and engagement in local football and other sports due to the quality coverage of both local and African football on DStv’s streaming options. South African football teams’ recent successes in African tournaments is also a likely contributing factor.

“Additionally, the platform NFI SA football fans use most often in 2024 to watch sports is broadcaster-owned streaming platforms (e.g. DStv Stream, ShowmaxPro, SABC Plus). This is a massive win for current streaming offerings as it was for social media platforms in 2023.

“NFI SA football households reflect notably higher levels of subscription to streaming services , compared to All NFI SA respondents. Year-on-year, NFI SA football fans have also indicated increased awareness of more football events – most notably AFCON, the CAF Champions League, and the Women’s CAF Champions League.

Findings and insights like these can empower marketing teams to adapt their strategies effectively. For example, a brand could use the platform’s data to identify emerging markets knowing that local football is gaining traction, allowing for more targeted marketing content. Similarly, sports teams can leverage fan engagement metrics to enhance sponsorship packages by highlighting the fan audiences using different digital platforms.

For more information about the NFI (Nielsen Fan Insights) platform or to subscribe, contact Nwabisa Sauls – Senior Commercial Manager on nwabisa@nielsensports.co.za