Live sports: The next frontier for streaming
As advertisers continue adding streaming to their budgets, connected TV (CTV) has quickly become the centerpiece of the modern media strategy. With better targeting and more measurable outcomes, CTV is where every marketer wants to be. But within the streaming boom, one category is stealing the spotlight and rewriting the playbook for engagement: live sports and events.
These aren't just high-viewership moments—live sports represent cultural flashpoints, capable of drawing massive, real-time audiences and driving deeper engagement than almost any other content category.
And the numbers back it up. The global online live sports streaming market is projected to reach $133.98 billion by 2031, growing at a 25% CAGR. Meanwhile, US digital live sports viewership has well surpassed linear TV. For sports advertisers, CTV has become a must-buy to win engaged audiences at scale.
Here's a deeper look into what's driving this shift and why CTV is now sports' biggest arena.
CTV WINS MORE SPORTS FANS—AND ADDRESSABLE AUDIENCES
For years, live sports and events have commanded the attention economy. As James Kreckler, SVP of Streaming & Data Products, Advertising and Partnerships noted at our Direct Access event at the NASDAQ MarketSite: 'If you look at the top 100 shows [in 2023]—all 100 of them were live events. If you look at top social conversations arorund shows, 96 out of 100 were live events.'
In short, live content is what captivates audiences. Now, these moments are increasingly migrating to streaming platforms. NBCUniversal hosted the first fully streamed Olympics in 2024. Netflix secured rights to the NFL's Christmas Day game and the FIFA Women's World Cup. Prime Video's exclusive NFL Wild Card broadcast led to the second-largest streaming day on record, with over 47 billion minutes watched. Leading media companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, YouTube, Fox, and NBC vie for the MLB exclusive package.
And live sports aren't just popular; they're impactful. They're often experienced communally, in high-attention settings like bars or big screens with friends. A single ad impression has the potential to reach not just one engaged viewer, but a household full, all emotionally invested in the moment. Live sports streamers are also more receptive to ads than traditional TV viewers, driving ROI and performance.
The audience has largely shifted, the inventory is scaling, and now, marketers have an opportunity to meet fans where they are: on streaming.
HIGH-IMPACT ADS FOR ANY PLAYER
What makes this shift even more significant is how live inventory is now bought and sold.
Thanks to programmatic enablement—99% of live events at NBCU, per Kreckler—the doors have opened for a wider range of advertisers to participate in premium, high-impact placements. What was once reserved for the biggest brands with the biggest budgets is now available to anyone with a demand-side platform (DSP) and a strategy.
Programmatic buying has democratized access to live sports, enabling indie agencies and SMBs to activate in moments previously out of reach. Whether it's a Super Bowl commercial break or a buzzer-beater in March Madness, the barrier to entry has never been lower—and the opportunity never greater.
STREAMING'S SUPERPOWER IS CONTEXTUAL
Contextual advertising is making a serious comeback, especially in channels where platforms, targeting, and measurement are fragmented and cookies don't apply, like CTV. What makes contextual targeting particularly powerful in live sports is the ability to align your message with the mood, subject, and sentiment of the content on screen. Viewers don't just watch sports, they feel them. That emotional intensity creates a powerful window of connection for brands.
By analyzing content, tone, and metadata, contextual platforms group inventory into emotional or thematic categories to ensure ads appear in the most relevant moments. When layered with deterministic targeting and a strong identity framework, advertisers can reach the right person, at the right moment, in the right mindset.
Take, for example, a women's athleisure brand looking to align with Caitlin Clark WNBA highlights. With basic app-level targeting—what most CTV platforms currently offer—you're limited to specific sports networks, like ESPN, or the entire sports genre, which includes events like fishing and badminton. But with contextual targeting, that ad can follow her story wherever it actually appears: CBS Sports, a lifestyle feature, or a morning segment celebrating female athletes.
Without contextual targeting, marketers are left guessing—targeting broad endemic channels and hoping the right content is airing. But sports content doesn't live in just one place anymore. With contextual IDs like the IRIS_ID, the ad follows the content, regardless of the app or network.
That's accuracy at scale: delivering meaningful creative across fragmented but thematically aligned moments throughout the CTV ecosystem.
MANAGING THE MOMENTUM OF LIVE SPORTS
Live sports aren't predictable, and that's part of their magic. Unlike scripted content, viewership ebbs and flows in real time, driven by the energy of the moment. A commercial during the final minutes of a nail-biting game has very different value than one aired during a lopsided matchup.
That volatility introduces both complexity and the need for smarter, more responsive tools. Investing in live sports over time helps smooth out these spikes and valleys, but the real advantage lies in platforms that can respond in real time. AI-powered systems are built for this kind of nuance; they can analyze large volumes of inventory to help advertisers assess value, update media plans, optimize delivery, and align the right creative with the right context.
Smarter DSPs with contextual capabilities can 'read the room' by identifying the emotional weight of a given moment and placing ads accordingly. Whether it's a half-time highlight or a game-winning play, showing up at the right time can make all the difference.
Live sports aren't just another ad placement. They're real-time cultural events, and now, thanks to advancements in programmatic technology and contextual targeting, advertisers of all sizes can participate.
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