In this op-ed by Dave Dembowski, SVP of Global Sales at Operative, discover how live sports streaming revolutionizes brand advertising, blending traditional broadcast strategies with digital innovation. Explore the complex dynamics, major players, and future sports broadcasting landscape in the streaming era.
The revolution in live-streaming sports is unfolding before our eyes, disrupting the broadcast and cable industry as new media giants, including Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube, enter the field. Sports organizations are finding themselves negotiating deals with lots of layers, where specific streamers get a certain night, like Amazon while free streaming is available on Twitch and aired on local broadcast stations.
The stakes are incredibly high as everyone figures out the rules for live-streaming sports. The NBA’s rights are valued at $75 billion over 12 years, and the NFL’s rights are worth upwards of $110 billion. The current court case against the NFL won’t just affect NFL franchise revenue, but the entire advertising and streaming ecosystem, which relies heavily on these extremely popular mass live events.
With all of this upheaval and complexity, it seems logical for advertising to follow the same path — with digitization, fragmentation, targeting, and more. But that’s actually the opposite of what’s going to happen. Live sports events on streaming channels actually work very much like linear broadcast sports events, and both streamers and advertisers need to understand why the industry will succeed.
Streaming Can’t Change Live Sports
Streaming sports has hit a tipping point — 53% of adults stream sports at least once per month, and it now accounts for 30% of all streaming views in the US. For multi-channel media companies like NBC, striking a balance on live sports is critical to ensure they aren’t out-maneuvered by a native digital competitor.
Tech giants like Amazon, Google, Apple, and Netflix have the resources to dominate streaming sports. Unlike traditional broadcasters, they lack legacy relationships and dependencies, allowing them to operate more flexibly. Without the constraints of politics, multiplatform contracts, and outdated technology, these companies can leapfrog traditional broadcasters.
However, streaming might be upending most things about watching TV, but a lot about live sports looks a lot like linear. People can binge-watch shows, watch new movies in their living room, and access content from around the world, but sports are resistant to a lot of these elements.
The excitement of the game happening live doesn’t change much just because it’s streamed instead of broadcast — few people time shift an important game. Sure, some people might discover they love Canadian curling or Indian cricket on streaming, but most people are going to root for the same local teams that they always have, streaming or broadcast. The big games like NBA finals, the Super Bowl, and the World Series will draw huge audiences all watching at the same time.
Premium Content Demands Premium Prices
The mass live appeal of sports means that the digital, often programmatic advertising that digital companies know and love isn’t as relevant. Amazon might have an advantage of cash and streaming technology, but their advertising savvy doesn’t come into play. It doesn’t make sense to allow a performance-oriented advertiser to bid on individual impressions during an NBA game when a brand-oriented advertiser is willing to pay premium CPMs for an entire audience – maybe even several national ad slots during a single game.
Live sports advertising makes media companies the most money when they stick to old-school ratings-based metrics and price-based on branding at scale, not precision targeting. This means that any streaming sports rights-holder is still going to consider the UpFronts important. They’re going to want some direct premium ad sales executives. And, they’re going to need to be able to program advertising directly coded into the content, not dynamically serve it to individual households through a big complex supply chain.
The Trickle-Down Effect to All Streamed Sports
By leading with brand awareness and following with addressability on major sports events, streaming platforms create a valuable ecosystem, avoiding the race to the bottom seen in programmatic advertising.
However, betting solely on brand advertising carrying streaming sports at the long tail is risky. The math of sports broadcasting shows that larger audiences generate greater revenue, but not every game attracts millions of fans. Mid-season baseball games for a mediocre team, college basketball, hockey, and many other popular but smaller sports streams can and should deliver a hybrid of premium brand advertising and targeted advertising.
As all of these details get worked out, the future of live sports streaming will remain complex. Half of American households still have cable. Sports rights holders need licensing deals that cater to both groups and offer flexibility for a variety of ad-sales strategies. Converged media planning across platforms will be essential. Convergence means different things for buyers and sellers, with varying performance KPIs. Success with converged platforms requires unified sales, delivery, performance metrics, and reporting.
Streaming will continue to grow in importance, but it won’t lead to an all-programmatic world. The ad market will resemble network TV more than walled gardens, with mergers and acquisitions likely shaping the future landscape as linear slowly fades out and streaming evolves. The convergence of live streaming and traditional advertising will define the next era of sports broadcasting.