Stream to the extreme

Motorsport fans, the wait is over.

The 2023 Formula 1 season kicks off in Bahrain this weekend, and what follows is one of the wildest travelling circuses on earth, featuring 23 races in 20 countries on five continents. This Twitter thread shows the craziness of the logistics involved and highlights what a global sport F1 has become.

One of the reasons for the sport’s rapid growth in recent years is the hit Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive, which premiered in 2019 and gives a dramatic, behind-the-scenes look at life in the fast lane. Drive to Survive was particularly successful at boosting engagement in the US – so much so that there will be three F1 races on US soil this year, for the first time ever.

The way we watch sport is changing and F1 is moving with the times. Fans now have the opportunity to subscribe directly to F1 TV, bypassing the local broadcast-rights holders. In South Africa, that means DStv…

We wanted to see what the subscription choices of 22seven users say about local demand, and how fans choose between F1 TV and DStv.

First, we looked at the growth in subscription numbers to F1 TV in South Africa. Over one year from 2021 to 2022, there was a 111% increase in F1 TV subscribers, compared to 1% and 7% for DStv and Netflix respectively.

This is interesting in isolation, but it’s even more relevant when you split out the users who subscribe to F1 TV as well as another streaming or entertainment service.

We found that 59% of F1 TV subscribers also have Netflix (suggesting exposure to Drive to Survive) and only 14% of F1 TV subscribers also have DStv. Based on monthly premiums, we believe that most of the latter crossover subscribers are paying for lighter DStv packages without access to premium sport, such as F1.

Given the growth in subscriptions to F1 TV, it’s clear that an increasing number of South Africans are getting into F1. It’s also clear that there’s a strong relationship between F1 TV subscribers and Netflix subscribers.

Sport has long been the differentiating factor for DStv’s more expensive subscription packages. However, as streaming technologies disrupt how live sport can be viewed, the F1 TV example suggests that many fans will choose to subscribe directly rather than take a bundled option.

Thanks for reading. If there’s an area of consumer spending you’d like to know more about, get in touch.