• by Wayne Friedman , April 26, 2013

Spurred on by big TV sporting events, men ramped up their sports app usage in the first months of this year.

There have been steady increases around specific TV sports events like the Super Bowl continuing through the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and the start of the Major League Baseball season, according to Arbitron Mobile's smartphone panel study.

During the Super Bowl, the NFL championship game on February 3, use of mobile sports apps by men ages 18 and older was at 12.9%. But two weeks later in mid-February, this dropped to 10%.

Then starting on March 10 -- in anticipation of the NCAA Tournament -- the use of sports mobile apps soared, with an 18.4% usage of men 18 years and older -- some 63.8 minutes a month. By way of comparison, this number was 6% for women 18 years and older, averaging 34.4 minutes a month.

Overall, Arbitron says sports apps had a 12.4% reach of its panel 18 years and older. Arbitron says men are big viewers of TV sporting events. The biggest demo group was men 35-44 -- a 22.8% reach and 77.1 minutes a month.

Slightly younger male users, 25-54 take in more sessions at 42.1 a month. Next come younger men, 18-24, who have 35.8 sessions a month.

The category that showed the poorest performance for men was those 55 and older, with 17.2% usage. Of this category that did use sports apps, they posted 50 minutes a month of usage, and 22.5 sessions a month.

Arbitron Mobile Oy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arbitron Inc.

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