Q&A: Recurly CCO Rachel Sheriff talks keeping sport streaming subscribers engaged through the off-season
As subscription-based streaming services have proliferated, leaving viewers with more fees to juggle than they can likely afford and rotate their expenditures month to month as they exhaust their pick of a given service’s offerings, streamers are left to deploy a variety of strategies to minimize churn and keep fans in the fold. These churn-curbing tactics might range from high-value bundles to targeted win-back campaigns to pause-not-cancel options and more, as well as reading analytic tea leaves to catch behavioral signals and predict churn before it happens, allowing them to pre-empt it with the right offer at the right moment.
Subscription-based sport streamers are arguably in a unique position when it comes to subscriber loyalty. On the one hand, if they own more or less exclusive rights to a given team or league they can count on the allegiance of a core of devoted fans for life (or for as long as they own those rights). But given that nearly all sports are seasonal, they can expect even the most passionate fans to pause their subscriptions in the off season if their content offering consists primarily of live games.
But what if they can supplement that core offering with premium, team-centric content that the fan base can’t find anywhere else? With fan bases for particular franchises more geographically scattered in earlier eras, streaming channels devoted to particular teams are arguably in a unique position to build communities that can keep fans engaged after the season ends. What are the most compelling and cost-effective content strategies that sport streamers can adopt to inspire year-round engagement from fair-weather fans, and break the familiar cycle of off-season churn?
In this Q&A with Rachel Sheriff, Chief Customer Officer at subscription management and billing platform Recurly, we explore the challenges sport streamers face when trying to keep loyal fans on the subscriber rolls and tuning in after the stadium lights shut off, and a variety of innovative strategies for sustaining engagement even when the countdown to opening day still feels frustratingly long.
Rachel Sheriff, CCO, Recurly
Are there strategies from M&E or other genres that have helped curb churn that sport platforms can adapt and adopt to reduce their end-of-season slumps and make their services compelling when there are no new games?
The biggest lesson sports platforms can learn from other subscription businesses is that retention starts long before a customer is thinking about canceling. The end of a season shouldn’t be the first time a platform starts thinking about how to keep a fan engaged.
Media and entertainment brands have become much more intentional about continuously demonstrating value through personalised recommendations, exclusive content and experiences that give subscribers a reason to return. Sports platforms have an opportunity to think about retention in the same way. The live game may be what initially brings a fan in, but it doesn’t have to be the only reason they stay. Behind-the-scenes access, player and team stories, documentaries, analysis and other exclusive experiences can extend that relationship beyond the season itself. The goal is to really build a relationship with the subscriber that extends beyond the moment that initially brought them in.
Are there ways that sport streaming platforms could use viewing and engagement history and other lifecycle data to inform tailored off-season programming and customer experiences rather than just pushing highlights and otherwise recycling archived games?
The opportunity isn’t simply to give subscribers more content during the off-season, but to give them more of what is actually relevant to them. Sports streaming platforms already have a wealth of signals about what individual fans care about, from the teams and players they follow to the types of content they watch, when they engage and how often they return.
When that behavioral data is combined with where someone is in the subscriber lifecycle, platforms can create a much more personalised experience. A longtime subscriber may respond to something very different than a fan who signed up for a single season or marquee event. The goal should be to understand what originally made the service valuable to that subscriber and then find new ways to reinforce that value as their needs change.
Making fans feel like they are part of communities that remain active throughout the off-season would seem like a viable way to maintain engagement. Should sport platforms be offering things like fantasy leagues, interactive content, or fan forums to keep their app top-of-mind between seasons?
There is a real opportunity here because fandom doesn’t disappear when the season ends. The question for sports platforms is how they can continue participating in that relationship when there isn’t a live game happening.
Fantasy leagues, interactive experiences, exclusive communities, player access or other fan-focused features can give subscribers reasons to engage that aren't entirely dependent on a game schedule. But the answer isn’t simply adding as many features as possible. Those experiences need to feel authentic to the audience and provide something fans genuinely value.
We’ve seen across subscriptions that the strongest relationships aren’t purely transactional. When customers feel recognised, included and part of something, there’s an emotional value to the subscription in addition to the financial or functional value. For sports platforms, community can be a particularly powerful way to create that connection because fans already have such a strong emotional relationship with their teams and leagues.
Are sport platforms joining other types of subscription services in taking advantage of more flexible subscription models like pause-and-resume incentives, reduced or tiered off-season pricing, or bundling with services with overlapping interests, or have they generally been less aggressive with these strategies?
Flexibility is becoming increasingly important across subscription categories as consumers’ needs, budgets and interests change. Sports is a great example of why the customer relationship isn’t always linear. A fan may subscribe for a season or major event and have less need for the service once it ends. Giving them the option to pause, move to a different tier or otherwise adjust their subscription can preserve the relationship without forcing an all-or-nothing decision.
The goal shouldn’t be preventing every customer from leaving but making it easy for them to come back. According to Recurly's 2026 State of Subscriptions data, nearly one in four new subscriptions now comes from a previously canceled customer, and 38% of consumers prefer pausing rather than canceling altogether. For sports platforms, that makes the off-season an opportunity to give fans more control over how they stay subscribed while keeping the relationship intact for the next season or event.
Does producing original content like BTS shows and historical documentaries to fill off-season programming schedules actually drive subscriber retention to a degree that justifies the investment required to create all of this content?
BTS programming, documentaries and other original content can give fans access to teams, players and stories they can’t get from watching a game alone. That exclusivity can help make the subscription feel valuable beyond live events. But platforms should be looking closely at how subscribers actually engage with that programming rather than assuming that producing more of it will automatically improve retention.
Ultimately, the strongest content strategy is going to be informed by what subscribers are telling you through their behavior. If particular formats are bringing fans back consistently during the off-season, that’s a meaningful signal. The investment should follow the experiences customers are demonstrating that they value.
Are there recognisable signals in consumer behavior right after seasons end (beyond obvious ones like login frequency) that platforms can track as indicators that a subscriber is likely to churn? How should platforms respond when they recognise those signals?
Most cancellations don’t happen suddenly. Customers often disengage before they actually cancel, allowing platforms to recognise when the relationship is weakening. For sports platforms, that means looking beyond login frequency at changes in viewing behavior, engagement with recommendations or communications, and whether previously valued content is still resonating.
But identifying churn risk is only useful if you understand what’s driving it. A fan reaching the end of their team’s season has a very different reason for disengaging than someone who had a poor experience with billing, streaming quality or customer support. Lifecycle data can help platforms respond accordingly, whether that means introducing relevant off-season content, offering a pause or moving the subscriber to a different plan. The goal is to respond with what that particular customer needs at that moment.
Over the next few years, what are the subscription or engagement strategies sport platforms are most likely to deploy to curb off-season churn, and how significant a role do you expect AI to play, whether it’s increased personalisation of the content offering, or accelerated or higher-volume clipping or other types of AI-generated or enhanced content creation?
I think we’ll see sports platforms move away from treating the subscription as something that begins with the first game and ends with the last one. The bigger opportunity is to create a year-round relationship with the fan while giving them more flexibility in how they participate in it. That could mean more personalised experiences, more flexible plans, greater use of pause options, exclusive content and experiences and programming designed around individual fan interests rather than a one-size-fits-all calendar.
AI can certainly help make that possible at a greater scale, particularly when it comes to understanding subscriber behavior and determining what content or experience may be most relevant to an individual fan. There are also interesting ways to make existing content more discoverable and create more personalised ways for fans to experience it, but AI alone is not a retention strategy. The underlying question remains the same: are you giving customers enough value to continue choosing your service? AI can help brands understand customers and deliver that value in more relevant ways, but the brand still has to turn that insight into an experience worth staying for.