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Every Minute Matters: What Super Bowl Streaming Data Taught Us About Customer Retention

Peter Pezaris
New Relic

This year's Super Bowl drew in viewership of nearly 124 million viewers and made history as the most-watched live broadcast event since the 1969 moon landing. To support this spike in viewership, streaming companies like YouTube TV, Hulu and Paramount+ began preparing their IT infrastructure months in advance to ensure an exceptional viewer experience without outages or major interruptions.


New Relic conducted an omnibus survey of more than 1,000 US adults to understand the importance of a seamless viewing experience and the impact of outages during major streaming events such as the Super Bowl.

Here are three key takeaways from the survey results:

1. Outages Lead to Lost Viewers

With customers paying a monthly fee to stream live events via platforms, it's no surprise they expect an uninterrupted, seamless viewing experience. Viewers want to get the most out of their money while streaming NFL games and other live events and do not hesitate to switch providers due to interruptions during the stream. In fact, 58% of survey respondents said they would switch to a different provider to continue watching live events in case of interruptions, with Gen Z (64%) and millennials (63%) being the most likely to switch streaming services.

2. Every Minute Counts During an Outage

When an outage occurs, quick resolutions are critical for streaming platforms to retain viewers. Successfully broadcasting live events means capturing every second of the action, so an outage on a streaming service means fans could be missing game-changing moments. For streaming service customers, the timer to switch providers begins the second the stream experiences an outage. Nearly half (48%) of survey respondents said they would wait less than 10 minutes before switching providers, with baby boomers being the most likely at 55%, followed by Gen X at 49%.

3. Customers Are Quick to Cancel Subscriptions

Beyond simply switching platforms during a live event, consumers have more streaming services to choose from than ever before, which puts streamers in a tough spot: They know an outage could cause a poor customer experience and, consequently, subscription cancellations. A blip during an event like the Super Bowl could impact the providers' customers and their bottom lines.

The majority (63%) of survey respondents said they would consider canceling a streaming service due to an outage during the Super Bowl or another live event, with millennials being the most likely to cancel at 70%. Moreover, 40% of respondents said they would wait less than 30 minutes to cancel their subscription to a streaming service during an outage.

If this year's record-breaking Super Bowl viewership taught us one thing, it's that every minute matters when streaming high-volume live events. Amid more competition and strong consumer demand for uninterrupted viewing experiences, streaming companies will increasingly have to ensure their applications are well-equipped to seamlessly broadcast major live events such as the Super Bowl, the NCAA's March Madness, or the Olympic Games.

Peter Pezaris is Chief Design and Strategy Officer at New Relic

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Every Minute Matters: What Super Bowl Streaming Data Taught Us About Customer Retention

Peter Pezaris
New Relic

This year's Super Bowl drew in viewership of nearly 124 million viewers and made history as the most-watched live broadcast event since the 1969 moon landing. To support this spike in viewership, streaming companies like YouTube TV, Hulu and Paramount+ began preparing their IT infrastructure months in advance to ensure an exceptional viewer experience without outages or major interruptions.


New Relic conducted an omnibus survey of more than 1,000 US adults to understand the importance of a seamless viewing experience and the impact of outages during major streaming events such as the Super Bowl.

Here are three key takeaways from the survey results:

1. Outages Lead to Lost Viewers

With customers paying a monthly fee to stream live events via platforms, it's no surprise they expect an uninterrupted, seamless viewing experience. Viewers want to get the most out of their money while streaming NFL games and other live events and do not hesitate to switch providers due to interruptions during the stream. In fact, 58% of survey respondents said they would switch to a different provider to continue watching live events in case of interruptions, with Gen Z (64%) and millennials (63%) being the most likely to switch streaming services.

2. Every Minute Counts During an Outage

When an outage occurs, quick resolutions are critical for streaming platforms to retain viewers. Successfully broadcasting live events means capturing every second of the action, so an outage on a streaming service means fans could be missing game-changing moments. For streaming service customers, the timer to switch providers begins the second the stream experiences an outage. Nearly half (48%) of survey respondents said they would wait less than 10 minutes before switching providers, with baby boomers being the most likely at 55%, followed by Gen X at 49%.

3. Customers Are Quick to Cancel Subscriptions

Beyond simply switching platforms during a live event, consumers have more streaming services to choose from than ever before, which puts streamers in a tough spot: They know an outage could cause a poor customer experience and, consequently, subscription cancellations. A blip during an event like the Super Bowl could impact the providers' customers and their bottom lines.

The majority (63%) of survey respondents said they would consider canceling a streaming service due to an outage during the Super Bowl or another live event, with millennials being the most likely to cancel at 70%. Moreover, 40% of respondents said they would wait less than 30 minutes to cancel their subscription to a streaming service during an outage.

If this year's record-breaking Super Bowl viewership taught us one thing, it's that every minute matters when streaming high-volume live events. Amid more competition and strong consumer demand for uninterrupted viewing experiences, streaming companies will increasingly have to ensure their applications are well-equipped to seamlessly broadcast major live events such as the Super Bowl, the NCAA's March Madness, or the Olympic Games.

Peter Pezaris is Chief Design and Strategy Officer at New Relic

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Kubernetes was not initially designed with AI's vast resource variability in mind, and the rapid rise of AI has exposed Kubernetes limitations, particularly when it comes to cost and resource efficiency. Indeed, AI workloads differ from traditional applications in that they require a staggering amount and variety of compute resources, and their consumption is far less consistent than traditional workloads ... Considering the speed of AI innovation, teams cannot afford to be bogged down by these constant infrastructure concerns. A solution is needed ...

AI is the catalyst for significant investment in data teams as enterprises require higher-quality data to power their AI applications, according to the State of Analytics Engineering Report from dbt Labs ...

Misaligned architecture can lead to business consequences, with 93% of respondents reporting negative outcomes such as service disruptions, high operational costs and security challenges ...

A Gartner analyst recently suggested that GenAI tools could create 25% time savings for network operational teams. Where might these time savings come from? How are GenAI tools helping NetOps teams today, and what other tasks might they take on in the future as models continue improving? In general, these savings come from automating or streamlining manual NetOps tasks ...

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A large majority (86%) of data management and AI decision makers cite protecting data privacy as a top concern, with 76% of respondents citing ROI on data privacy and AI initiatives across their organization, according to a new Harris Poll from Collibra ...

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2020 was the equivalent of a wedding with a top-shelf open bar. As businesses scrambled to adjust to remote work, digital transformation accelerated at breakneck speed. New software categories emerged overnight. Tech stacks ballooned with all sorts of SaaS apps solving ALL the problems — often with little oversight or long-term integration planning, and yes frequently a lot of duplicated functionality ... But now the music's faded. The lights are on. Everyone from the CIO to the CFO is checking the bill. Welcome to the Great SaaS Hangover ...

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