Live Sports Is Driving Innovation in Ad-Tech
If 2024 was the year of live-streaming sports, 2025 is the year of live-streaming ad innovation. With massive audiences that continue to steal from traditional TV, advertisers are looking for new opportunities to reach massive live audiences digitally. Media companies are working hard to offer the TV advertising experience of the future. That future will include new forms of targeting, interactivity, creative ad formats, and much more.
The pace of innovation will be dictated by a combination of factors that balance advertiser demand with media company strategy. Media companies from traditional and digital roots know that they not only need smart partnerships with sports franchises, they need a unified business that helps brands reach audiences effectively while maximizing their own growth goals.
Collaboration Between Streamers and Sports is Just Beginning
Streaming sports took the world by storm last year, with the Olympics streaming on Peacock, the largest ever streamed Superbowl audience, and more than 100 million people watching live events digitally in the US for the first time. This year, streaming will continue to capture bigger audiences, which means media companies are leaning into new partnerships, especially with the biggest sports franchises including the NFL and the NBA.
Media companies from both traditional and digital backgrounds are dreaming big. NBCU and Walmart announced a shop-while-streaming partnership over Thanksgiving weekend in 2024 that enabled viewers to shop for products from a QR code on screen. The goal of tying CPG sales to TV viewing is the holy grail that many advertisers hope to reach with streaming.
During their first ever Up Front presentation last May, Amazon announced an eleven-season deal with the NBA, giving them rights as the first exclusive streaming partner. The announcement featured Amazon’s digital advertising capabilities including a highly measurable full-funnel approach that entices brands looking to drive purchase and incremental lift, not just brand awareness, from live sports.
Creative Advertising Opportunities Emerge
The first wave of streaming ad innovation has been focused on the basics such as IP-based ad targeting. While advertisers want precision targeting and programmatic automation on streaming, many media companies are cautious not to dilute the value of their live sports content. In an interesting “reverse trend” a lot of the most popular games are actually sold up-front, more like traditional linear, with pre-set ad pods. This not only allows media companies to sell one audience across both linear and streaming, but preserve premium pricing. Of course, selling an ad up-front doesn’t mean it can’t be delivered digitally, and many media companies are embracing a hybrid “linear streaming” approach that delivers pre sold ads dynamically.
The next phase is to build on the concept of “linear streaming” by incorporating high-value ad opportunities that take advantage of the digital and real-time nature of sports content. Consider a retailer that sponsors a specific athlete who wants to run their ads any time their athlete makes a great play in the game. They’d pay extra for the ability to target ads, which is a boon to media companies if they can leverage those real-time content insights. Working with the sports franchises can help - knowing who will be kicking off at halftime, for example - but media companies also need a streamlined ad operations strategy to pull it off.
As streaming takes off, it’s likely that media companies and sports franchises collaborate in even more creative ways. With Amazon and Netflix selling out of ad inventory for their marquee NFL games in 2024, media companies know demand is there if they come up with new concepts. Expect sponsored behind the scenes footage, more big half-time shows, more sponsored interactive and high-impact game-time animation packages, and new ad formats that encourage viewers to lean in. As viewers take in these new ad experiences, advertisers, media companies and sports franchises will shape the future of streaming live events.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from Operative. Streaming Media accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]
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