How Streaming Is Changing Advertising In Sports

As streaming scores more viewers, sports are slowly but surely moving from traditional TV–broadcasdting and cable–to connected TV. 

As a viewer, it is easy to underestimate what a difference the shift to streaming means. Games are a little harder to find and record. But some telecasts offer camera angles the viewer can select and an array of advanced stats are available.

For advertisers the change is much more profound. Like many in ad tech, Viant is looking to get more involved as sports shift to streaming and commercials in live events get bought programmatically.

Jon Schulz, chief marketing officer at Viant, tells The Measure, that the move of sports to streaming will create new opportunities for advertisers.

One opportunity is greater access to sports inventory for a broader range of advertisers, Schulz says. Another is the ability to use data to better target ads aimed at people who watch sports.

During the spring at the network upfront presentations, sports was a very big deal. The first person on stage at the Walt Disney Co.’s upfront was Saquon Barkley, a running back for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, he notes. Athletes were front and center at the other upfront presentations as wekk,

Demand for sports inventory drove upfront gains for the networks and most was sold in deals made for the biggest clients by the biggest agencies.

“A lot of the best sports inventory is not available to bid on because it’s part of upfront buys,” Schulz said. Viant has relationships with NFL rights holders such as Disney, NBCUniversal and Paramount, but NBC doesn’t need a lot of help selling out Sunday Night Football.

But streaming has put more sports leagues than ever on TV and brands that can’t go into the upfront and compete with Toyota, Coke and the other big guys, now can find streaming commercials in everything from golf and tennis to pickleball and cornhole on programmatic platforms.  Even the Olympics.

“Live sports moving to streaming is really democratizing and making it even more widely available,” he says.

The other promise of streaming is the targeting, notes Schulz pointing to IRIS.TV, the contextual advertising company Viant acquired last year.

With contextual targeting ads appear at more propitious moments, so a marketer’s beer ads run after touchdowns, as opposed to less celebratory scenes.

Given the right data streaming ad campaigns can also be constructed to reach advanced audiences, such as pickup truck drivers or pet owners.

Owners of first party data, such as loyalty programs, can also take advantage of streaming sports. If you’ve got 10 million people who love a product, you can reach more of them via  sports than on a series of lower-rated shows. “Just because the audience is bigger, that doesn’t mean you can’t target. It just means you have a higher hit rate,” he says.

Reaching a bigger chunk of your target market helps move the needle in terms of sales and can also drive return on investment.

Naturally, Schulz believes there are advantages to buying on a programmatic platform.

“If you just want a run-of-network buy for $1 million, you could just call one of the networks. If you happen to have an audience target that you want to go after and you’re doing something around contextual, you’re probably better off doing it programmatically,” Schulz says. ”I guarantee you if you’re a small buy in a big event, [the network] is going to just plug them in wherever they can plug them in,” he said. 

Also working through a platform like Viant’s, an advertiser can assemble more of the viewers it’s looking to target by getting some when they’re watching a game on ESPN, others on Paramount+ and another bunch from Peacock. 

Inevitably more major sports inventory will be available programmatically. NFL games are already streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Peacock and Paramount Plus. Even more football is streaming since ESPN and Fox launched their DTC apps.  NBA games will also be on Amazon and Peacock next season. Baseball is on Roku and Apple TV.

“It’s messy right now but what you're starting to see with ESPN and Fox is the pendulum starting to swing forward,” he says.

Buying targeted viewers can be more expensive on a simple cost-per-thousand viewers (CPM) basis, but the companies that are comfortable with programmatic buying are mostly already looking at adjusting to effective CPMs. 

“If I'm bidding against a bunch of other people, it's just like in search or anything else, the relative cost is going to be higher,” Schulz said. But the cost is worthwhile. “I would rather fish where the fish are.”

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Comscore said it launched a new Data Partner Network, which uses AI to enable third-party data providers to convert ID-based datasets into ID-free CTV audience segments.

Several data providers have already signed up, including AnalyticsIQ, Circana, Dynata, Eyeota, L2 Data, Lighthouse-Ameribase, LBDigital, Polk Automotive Solutions from S&P Global Mobility, PurpleLab, RevOptimal, Symphony Health, Throtle and TransUnion.

Programmatic platform MiQ has already seen significant results with the AI-powered technology, deploying these segments across many CTV campaigns to drive improved reach and reduced cost per unique reach. 

“The future of audience targeting is a privacy-centric approach that still drives scale and performance outcomes,” said Sara Sowsian, Director, US Product Partnerships at MiQ. “It’s a balancing act that’s critical to the future of digital advertising, and we’re excited about how Proximic by Comscore’s Data Partner Network supports that goal—helping our clients at MiQ reach the right audiences efficiently and responsibly in a rapidly evolving ecosystem.”