Sports may struggle to match TV engagement on streaming, Barclays says

** Shift towards streaming will likely make it tougher for sports to sustain engagement at levels comparable to television, Barclays says

** Live sports on traditional TV create a shared, synchronized experience that shapes how people watch at same scheduled time — brokerage

** But streaming offers more personalized choice and makes distraction easier, with more ways to interact and engagement-level shifts — brokerage

** Barclays says streaming can boost awareness, but "Drive to Survive," a docu-series on Formula 1, was successful not just because it was on Netflix NFLX.O

** Adds, NFLX's global reach can rescue TV shows, but most sports are local, so global distribution adds little engagement vs engagement of hits like "Stranger Things" and "Friends"

** Soccer, cricket, and WWE are more global, but sports economics skew to the U.S., which generates about half of global sports media revenue — brokerage

** Disney DIS.N could benefit the most from sports streaming via cross-sell through a Disney+ and Hulu bundle