For Context: From cable to connected TV: Live sports on screen

The sports media story of the year has been the boardroom drama of the NBA’s media rights deal, which was finalized in July 2024. In a matter of four decades, the league will have advanced from broadcasting the NBA Finals on tape delay to live streaming its games in 2025, an essential component of its $76 billion rights deal.

The NBA deal is emblematic of the rise of live sports in general, which have become ever more lucrative for networks, leagues and advertisers.

The world and our attention have become more fragmented, but sports remain a massive draw for fans young and old. Sports broadcasts are arguably the last great unifier of live audiences, where advertisers can deliver their message on a mass scale.

As live games have migrated to streaming platforms like Peacock, which aired every Olympic event for the first time ever, marketers can now mix the precision, targeting and measurement that streaming helps deliver with the scale that live sports offers. This is a monumental shift in how viewers, advertisers, networks and leagues all operate.

On this episode of For Context, we’re diving into the history of live sports on screen, as the world’s biggest leagues, from the NFL to the NBA, have moved from cable to connected TV.