Power play: How big tech and sports leagues can champion live sports streaming

Linear TV remains a stronghold for live sports viewing. Nielsen data showed that 93% of the most-watched broadcast events were NFL matches last year. But at the same time, live sports are finding new homes on digital platforms — and they’re settling in for the long term. A May 2024 study by YouGov Global Fan Profiles found that a quarter of Americans now stream live sports up from one in six three years earlier. As major technology players like Apple, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix expand their premium live sports rights portfolios with million– and billion–dollar deals, digital-native market disruptors have laid their flag in the ground in the live sports arena — and they’re here to stay.

Increasingly fragmented, non-exclusive rights models mean that leagues and federations can monetize their content in infinite ways and engage with limitless rights holders. Meanwhile, big tech players are pushing to expand their reach and maximize ROI on significant rights investments. New tricks and creative strategies can help enhance the value of live sports content, widen global reach, and drive greater sports monetization potential. But it’s not all smooth sailing amid growing competition and changing consumer expectations. Let’s explore what’s new, and what comes next, in live sports streaming.

More live sports means new tech challenges

So, your rights team has just negotiated a blockbuster, exclusive deal to stream hundreds of premium sports events across a regular season — plus thousands of other events across wider tiers and niche sports. Or maybe your federation has recently signed a global distribution agreement to bring live coverage to diverse takers around the world. The likelihood is that your platform or infrastructure wasn’t originally designed to handle this volume of high-value live video. It’s incredibly complex and it sits outside of your core business areas.

Acquiring, customizing, and delivering premium live video at scale requires highly specialized infrastructure and deep know-how. Ensuring that your platform is equipped with the backend capabilities to handle an unprecedented number of live feeds, downstream destinations, and millions of concurrent users is vital. Meanwhile, finding ways to balance production quality with operational costs is essential to driving profitability while meeting fan expectations.

Reducing latency across every step of the video chain is critical to delivering exceptional live sports content that bring viewers as close to real-time as possible. Typical streaming delays still leave fans frustrated. Streaming consumers expect lower latency that can push toward broadcast-grade levels and offer more synchronized experiences across platforms and devices. And for content providers that want to introduce real-time interactivity, gamification, and in-play wagering, ultra-low latency is mission-critical. Beyond advances in last-mile delivery protocols, rights holders and distribution platforms can reduce latency further up the video chain through more closely connected production and playout workflows to achieve measurable improvements without sacrificing reliability.

Data is a business priority — and it’s elevating fan experiences

Rights holders and digital-native content providers can harness consumer insights and creative data utilization to fuel global fan engagement. Technology leaders have deep access to data insights that can be used to identify what works and double down on success. Free from the traditional geographical restraints of linear broadcasting models, sports streamers can pursue a highly regionalized approach, tailoring their content offerings and rights investment strategies to cater to audience demand. From offering exclusive hockey packages for Canadians to serving Spanish-speaking communities across North America with Latin American soccer leagues, content providers must pursue more regionally nuanced distribution strategies to maximize viewer engagement.

Harnessing in-stream data to elevate experiences and supercharge customization and monetization potential is now mission-critical. Embedding intelligent ad markers within live sports enables better targeting across any platform. Meanwhile, presenting visually engaging scoring data, betting data, and athlete performance analytics in real-time on-screen — and customizing it in limitless ways — unlocks deeper, hyper-personalized engagement. The boldest players will be those who can synchronize diverse data sources and automate the creation of infinite versions of live sports content tailored to specific audiences — powering ROI and global reach. The race is on.

Deepen subscriber revenue and expand your reach

Rethink Research projects global media rights for the top 16 sports leagues worldwide will exceed $90 billion by 2033. Increasing ROI on costly investments through new monetization strategies and interactivity features like commerce and gamification is high on the agenda for market leaders. Digital-native players who can deftly tie in shopification or hyper-targeted commercials within live sports will be in a prime position to deepen customer billing relationships and fan engagement.

At the same time, people are looking for creative ways to expand their audience share beyond the confines of their direct-to-consumer services or platforms. Subscription fatigue is growing and households are facing rising costs and frustration at the number of services they need to maintain. Sports streamers that strategically spiderweb their content across wider platforms and viewing environments can engage new audiences — and champion a more fan-first position.

It’s time to capitalize

I speak with world-leading technology platforms and major sports leagues every day. Many of them have a unique opportunity to change how live sports content is produced and consumed. Live sports opens the door to deeper fan engagement. Understanding the needs of the fans enables you to design and execute a service that contributes to greater engagement. Lean-in viewing experiences with deeper interactivity and immersive quality, drive storytelling and new monetization streams that stand you out from the crowd and enable you to convert eyeballs to dollars.

While rapid innovation and a push for greater ROI will drive live sports streaming forward, I hope our industry retains a focus on simplicity and value for consumers. Fans want easier-to-navigate subscription landscapes. They want to know that they can watch their favorite team anytime. They want to see real value with better-than-good-enough viewing experiences. All are possible with the right technology foundations and fan-centric approach.

Discover how to increase reach and power new revenue with live sports streaming here.