When I wrote in SBJ last March about why sports fans could finally move on from legacy TV, the landscape felt more straightforward. Streaming promised lower costs, greater control and the flexibility fans had long wanted. For a moment, it seemed as if sports audiences had found an escape hatch from the cable bundle.

But sports media rarely stands still. Since then, the NBA finalized a major rights package with Amazon, NBC and ESPN. MLS opened its matches to all Apple TV subscribers. And the NFL continued doing what it does better than anyone else: stretching across more platforms without losing momentum. Streaming certainly remains the future, but fans are now describing that future with more nuance than in previous years.

Our latest YouGov Sport Custom Research study, fielded to more than 1,000 sports fans, shows where sentiment is shifting: Fans still like streaming, but their perceptions are rapidly changing.

Fans are using more apps than expected

Streaming was supposed to simplify everything. Instead, many fans feel as if they’re cobbling together a viewing strategy each week. Only a quarter (26%) of all sports fans nationally rely on a single streaming service to watch live games. Another one in five (22%) use two. Roughly one in 10 (12%) lean on three and 6% use four or more. For sports streamers — which we define as those who already........

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