by Jessica Klein

In terms of digital entertainment, what do young adults favor, music or sports?  Nielsen answered this question through research commissioned by Vevo, finding an answer that should please the online music platform. While sports video content reaches about 12 million unique viewers per month online, music video programming gets 22 million, the study reports.

The research firm’s data also indicates that music video content on the web has more engagement power for viewers between the ages of 18 and 34. Such viewers stick with music content on the web for an average of 80 minutes per month, while sports content engagement average 40 minutes.

Music is more popular than sports on mobile, too. Music programming reaches 39 million monthly unique users across mobile, compared to just 21 million for sports, with the average fan spending 139 minutes engaged with music programming versus 71 minutes for sports, according to Nielsen.

This says as much about the choice to consume content on mobile devices as it does about young adults’ interest in music/sports. However, Nielsen’s research did find that young-adult music and sports fans tend to own more electronic gadgets than the digital viewing population at large.

Overall, music seems to draw a more passionate fan-base among the adults, 18-34, group. When asked to rate their fandom on a 10-point scale, respondents within this age group averaged 7.81 for music, beating out other categories like movies, TV, travel, video games, and — yes — sports.

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“Music fandoms cross all age groups and are evenly split between male and female,” said Vevo revenue chief Jonathan Carson. “With the sports audience not only older but heavily male, it’s surprising that brands are spending 10x on sports sponsorships versus music, according an IESGR sponsorship report.” (Or, said in more direct terms: All of you advertisers spending so much on sports content, maybe you should rethink that.)

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.