Over the years the nature of sports viewership has changed massively, as traditional TV viewing has begun shifting towards streaming content and online platforms. With a rapid advancement in technology more people are now watching online content, and avidly using OTT streaming platforms resulting in them becoming more of a powerhouse in the sports broadcasting industry.

How times have changed

Traditionally, sports fans would either buy tickets and make their way to a venue and watch their sports team live or they would watch sports on the TV from the comfort of their own home. However, times have changed, and the growth of the Internet has opened up many different ways of watching sports.

As younger generations become interested in sport, viewing patterns have begun to shift. Nowadays, many younger viewers are more interested in streaming games online, with many watching multiple games at once. The accessibility with which many can access different events now is a stark contrast to before the turn of the century, where some games just weren't televised.

Recent reports have shown that sports clubs are either in the process of implementing or considering providing content through their own premium OTT services as an additional, independent stream of revenue. A third of the top 25 football clubs and six of the top ten largest leagues and federations now offer premium OTT services – and half of these launched only over the last two years.

Hidden Figures

Companies like Amazon have found their way into being one of the most valuable brands in the world and were last reported as having a value of $386.06 billion. One big contributor to that success comes from their Prime Video streaming services. Amazon made their first foray into the sports rights market in 2017, when they paid $50m to secure all ten Thursday night games for the NFL. The price paid marked a fivefold increase of the value of the rights, compared to what Twitter had paid for the same package the previous year. Amazon's business model is somewhat unique in comparison to streaming giant, Netflix, as it offers sports as a complementary option to its wider offerings of film/TV.

OTT platforms are ideal for sports for a variety of reasons:

• Fans can catch live action when they otherwise would have missed it

• Fans can view recordings if they miss the game live

• Experiences can be personalized.

• Apps can offer extra information such as stats and scores.

This means providers can offer value-added services with little effort and show ads targeted specifically to each viewer, which is something traditional television can't do.

Teams can cater to super fans, provide behind-the-scenes access, sell direct advertising, and give fans first access to all games. Plus, teams can utilize the same targeted advertising and personalized value-add services that networks can.

Even the smallest of clubs can use the most basic OTT services to stream to fans who can’t make games, building audience and brand loyalty similar to major sports or broadcast organizations.

Future Predictions / Trends for this sector

With OTT platforms obtaining massive success in recent years, the possibilities are endless with what will come from them in the future. Below are some predictions for 2022.

Better connectivity

In 2022 video steaming is set to make up 82% of all the internet traffic. When combined with other technological advancements like 5G it is sure to become standardized in 2022 which will only make videos harder to resist because of its high functioning speeds. In addition, this also means better connectivity in the form of smartphones, which has also seen a major growth in sales during the last couple of years, which will continue into the next year.

More advertisers

In 2020, as the pandemic broke out, we saw a staggering growth of OTT which also saw advertising budgets shifting to the platform. That trend hasn’t reversed even though people seem to be learning to live with the pandemic and leaning towards a normal life. Cord-cutting seems to be continuing too, with current figures showing that 200,000 more people cancelled their TV Licences in the last year making it a total of 1.7 million compared to the previous year which was 1.5 million. But cord-cutting doesn’t mean content-cutting is happening. It’s just that there is a shift from cable TV to OTT.

Bars to adopt OTT

OTT is also an opportunity for sports-focused bars to differentiate themselves from the competition and offer diverse content for their clients. And there are a lot of options to choose from.

 In the past pubs mainly used Sky and BT for sports event coverage. Now, with new players in the game, fragmentation starts to set in. There is Sky, BT, Premier Sports and Amazon. On top of that comes Eurosport and Facebook making its first but generously funded steps in the OTT market.

The gradual rise of OTT platforms has led other companies in the field to consider moving more in the direction of live sports, as this is seen to be crucial to retaining high viewing numbers for many broadcasters. Live sports are an incredibly valuable commodity viewed across the world by millions, and it could become the key piece for online streaming platforms to continue their upward growth moving forward. TV watching is no longer a couch-only experience. It’s more about being able to stay up to speed with everything happening with the sports, independently of the time and place.