Today, watching sports on TV remains the most natural way to enjoy games when fans are not in the stadium. But, even if there is an illusion of diversification with the ways we can watch the competitions now (mainly through OTT platforms on smartphones), we’ve come to an era where traditional broadcasters must innovate & reimagine themselves for today’s fans, used to playing video games, and craving for personalized content & interactivity with their beloved teams.

The statement: The static broadcast experience is no longer a reference

Exclusive rights deals continue to raise huge amounts of money & have become the primary source of leagues’ revenues, so that the sports streaming is now completely locked into certain providers & channels, without really taking into account the way fans reach those channels & what they expect from the broadcast experience today. Even if this status quo is still stable and profitable for the sports industry, a lot of new media are retaining fans’ attention (from eSports NBA 2K tournaments to virtual concerts on Fortnite). It shows that, if the broadcasters didn’t reinvent themselves, fans will turn to more engaging forms of entertainment.

Today’s fans are no longer passive, they are looking for immersive experiences that let them interact more, learn more and participate (read more about the need for sports brands to reimagine the fan experience). Even remotely, they want to be able to rely on their communities and get the feeling to be part of something bigger. Younger fans, raised with interactive media and used to Twitch & Tik-Tok, will expect more from the sports streaming, and will quickly desert the linear & lean-back experience of sports broadcast (a statement made by the latest report of the Sports Innovation Lab).

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