By Wim Ponnet
Long viewed as the last holdout in linear TV, the tide seems to at last be turning for sports.
Even before ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. announced their massive joint venture in February, a meaningful shift away from cable had already begun. Nielsen reports that 18% fewer viewers watched this year’s Super Bowl via cable or antenna, while viewership on non-TV devices, like phones and laptops, increased by 57%. While sports have traditionally been a stronghold of broadcast TV, the rise of streaming services is leading to a migration of sports viewers towards digital platforms.
The traditional model for sports rights owners — buying rights and selling them to cable companies — is clearly dying. But this shift in how sports are consumed and distributed isn’t the only trend streamers need to respond to.
We’re also seeing fundamental changes in who watches sports. Demographics that used to be less engaged are flocking to watch rising star players and new leagues and co-create a new era of sports fandom.
These changes create an exciting opportunity for sports streamers to capture viewers, turn them into loyal fans, and transform fandom into revenue. Here are some of the sports streaming trends we’re seeing and how leagues, teams, and rights holders can capitalize on them to engage and entertain today’s sports fans.
What Fans Are Rooting For
In today’s dynamic environment, direct fan participation is almost required. At the very least, it can be a significant differentiator. So, who are today’s sports fans, and what do you need to know to engage them effectively?
Interest in sports is becoming increasingly multifaceted. Different geographies, age groups, and genders have different preferences about which sports they want to watch and how they want to consume them.
For example, baseball has declined in popularity in the United States — 9% of Americans called it their favorite sport to watch in 2023, down from 21% in 1994. Meanwhile, in Japan, the country’s World Baseball Classic quarterfinal game against Italy in 2023 drew viewership numbers comparable to the Super Bowl in the US.
Also, Infillion reports that younger viewers are driving an increase in the popularity of niche sports. For example, Gen Z was twice as likely as all fans to say they enjoyed watching cricket, and millennials and Gen Z preferred motorsports to golf and tennis.
Deloitte reports that these young viewers are hungry for technology that caters to their needs: 46% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials want real-time statistics and analytics (compared with 23% of boomers). And 80% of millennials say they would pay extra for a streaming service that aggregates everything they want to watch.
Not every fan will tune in for the entire game live and may prefer replays; super fans may crave behind-the-scenes footage and in-depth analytics. The race is wide open — and my bet is on the sports streamers that can provide each demographic with a personalized experience that caters to their unique interest in sports.
The New Generation of Female Fans
This personalization is especially important when it comes to one of today’s fast-growing fan demographics: women.
The popularity of stars like college basketball player Caitlin Clark has led to a long overdue increase in coverage of women’s sports. Wasserman reports that women’s sports now account for 15% of coverage, up significantly from 4% in the past.
There’s a strong incentive for sports streamers to capitalize on this demand because there are clear ties between growth in viewership and revenue. The Sports Innovation Lab reports that fans of women’s sports are 1.5 times more likely to buy sports merchandise than the average American sports fan and more than 80% more likely to buy sports collectibles.
As I mentioned after returning from SportsPro Madrid 2023, discoverability is critical to capitalizing on any demographic’s growing interest in sports — and streamers are at an advantage. The Sports Innovation Lab notes that 77% of women’s games are on OTT networks, compared to just 27% on broadcast.
However, women’s sports suffer from fragmentation as much as the rest of the industry. On average, women’s sports leagues have at least six OTT and broadcast partners (with some leagues fragmented across eleven platforms).
There’s an opportunity here for super aggregators to alleviate the pain points of fragmentation, but improving discoverability is just the first step toward making the most of changing fan demographics.
How To Approach Sports Fan Engagement Opportunities
Fan participation opens up new avenues for monetization through targeted advertising, merchandise sales, subscription models, and more.
For example, you can offer interactive features that help fans become more knowledgeable and engaged. Pilipinas Live provides in-game polls and quizzes to drive fan engagement during games. Engagement features can be a stepping stone to other revenue drivers like betting.
Increased engagement also provides data that you can use to understand preferences and habits, informing other revenue streams such as smart stadiums and sponsorship programs.
You can also use tactics to retain audience attention between games and turn casual viewers into loyal and engaged fans. For example, Canada’s Sportsnet+ is using QR codes during pay-per-view UFC fights to advertise exclusive prelim content to subscribers. Fans who want an inside view may become subscribers instead of paying to watch the occasional event.
But one size doesn’t fit all for today’s increasingly diverse sports fans. And capturing and monetizing attention among different audiences starts with technology. You need to consider whether your technology stack can meet this diverse and fragmented demand.
Your CMS should offer advanced, AI-enabled metadata management capabilities allowing segmentation and in-the-minute distribution across platforms and formats. This is particularly crucial in sports streaming, where the timely delivery of relevant content is critical.
By applying enriched metadata that pulls from public information and understands context and user intent – not just “tags” – to content, platforms can automatically deliver personalized recommendations to different audiences. Segmentation also allows you to pursue a monetization strategy that aligns with those segments.
This is an exciting moment for streamers to tap into the evolving sports community. With the right technology, you can attract, engage, and retain today’s new generation of fans — no matter where they are, what sports they care about, or how they demonstrate their team loyalty. The ability to distribute diversified sports content at scale is paramount, not only to meet the varied preferences of a global audience but also to leverage the growing trends of fan engagement.
