There was a time when watching live sport meant one remote, one broadcaster, and one living room. That era is quickly passing. Sports media is undergoing its most significant transition since the shift from analogue to digital, only this time the change is being driven by fans rather than technology.
Across Europe viewing habits are splintering; audiences now drift between broadcasters, streaming services, YouTube, TikTok, podcasts, and creator-led watchalongs. In the UK, YouTube now sits only behind the BBC for total audience reach. The once-stable value chain of buying rights, airing matches, and selling ads has become a fragmented ecosystem that is shaped less by the broadcaster partner and more by the people watching and the distribution platforms.
With another stellar year of sport on the horizon – including the NFL, Winter Olympic Games, Six Nations and Fifa World Cup – fans increasingly expect live sport to be available to them and not to have to find it. They want relevance, flexibility, and control, not just in what they watch, but in how they watch it.
This shift is also forcing leagues and broadcasters to reconsider long-held assumptions. Rights packages that once sat neatly with one or two partners are now being split across streamers, social platforms, and creators. The Bundesliga choosing Mark Goldbridge to front Friday-night coverage, or LaLiga partnering with Goalhanger to weave match clips into a podcast-first format, would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Today, it reflects a clear commercial reality: attention moves first, and rights follow.
Fans are increasingly choosing formats that feel more participatory. Watchalongs, live chat, real-time commentary, meme-driven highlight culture and contextual overlays all cater to audiences who want to feel part of something, not just observers. Traditional broadcasters are now racing to provide the same level of intimacy and relevance.
Sports media restrictions
The question is how far the hybrid model can go. If leagues already split rights across broadcasters, streamers and digital creators, then there is no reason a future Boxing Day fixture could not be shown simultaneously on Dazn, YouTube, and a creator-led channel, each offering different commentary styles, ad experiences, and levels of interactivity. The NFL has started to explore hybrid models with their global Netflix deal that covers Christmas Day games and takes them to multiple global markets. It aired for the first time in 2024 and will be repeated in 2025.
This is where the economics are heading. Fragmentation creates more inventory, but it also makes reach and measurement harder to verify. Advertisers still require consistency, contextual relevance, and transparency, but across an increasingly decentralised viewing environment. Making all of these formats work together remains a major challenge for the industry.
Fans are not concerned with the industry’s structural challenges. They care about the quality of the experience. The organisations that deliver the most frictionless, personalised, and culturally relevant version of live sport will win attention, and the advertising market will follow.
The next decade of sports media will belong to the players who can best design around how people want to watch, across channels, across communities, across formats and often all at once.
James Grant is SVP Advanced Television at Equativ