How wide is the gap between the best and worst performing Formula 1 live streaming providers? Is there a service that is consistently delivering higher race video quality? Would the differences be so visible that viewers go hunting for a better service causing churn?
Those were the questions we wanted to answer when we monitored the viewer experience of three streaming services of the Hungarian Grand Prix. We also compared the results to the French Grand Prix analysis from the previous weekend.
These questions are important because in today’s competitive streaming world, fans can easily compare the same live sports content delivered by different platforms, many of whom offer free trial options and may choose the ones with the best quality. The latest data confirms this behavior with OTT churn at an all-time high of 44% in 2021 and subscription-hopping rising to 33% of U.S. consumers saying they had both added and canceled a subscription over the past 6 months.
Our virtual probes, that watch and evaluate content just like humans do*, measured a 16-point gap between the best and worst performing service with F1 TV way ahead of the field with a SSIMPLUS VIewer Score (SVS) of 79.5 – below its 80.2 SVS result in the French. Provider 1 delivered 64 SVS – 16 SVS points behind the F1 TV leader. Provider 2 delivered 68.9 SVS. We subscribe to F1 TV Pro account, which is their only option to stream F1 races live.
The results from Provider 1 and 2 were the lowest viewer experience results recorded from all the monitored live sports in the past one month, below any of the MLB games. Half of the race the quality was so bad that it was basically unwatchable – when you have 64 SVS for the whole race it means that many parts of the 2-hour stream were with quality in the low 40s as you can see from the images below. Will F1 fans suffer through such a poor viewer experience? Will you watch it yourself? Will you not look for another option for the next Grand Prix especially when you have several options available within a few clicks?
