Leaders in Live: A Look at the Rise of Live Sport Streaming Advertising in the US with Bally Sports
The rise of streaming has cemented a new normal for live sport viewing globally, offering exciting advertising opportunities across streaming platforms, and connecting brands with highly engaged sports fans.
In this series, Magnite speaks to global and local broadcasters pioneering live streaming, and explores the unique challenges and opportunities of live sport advertising.
In this episode, Magnite speaks to Bally Sports about the momentum of live sport streaming in the US and the benefits of programmatic to deliver scalable and impactful advertising campaigns.
Chandrahas Shetty: Can you provide an overview of Bally Sports?
Kevin Connelley: Bally Sports is the largest regional sports network in the United States, offering in-market live game coverage of teams across the NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball. We produce over 3,500 games annually for these leagues based on the footprint of franchises and regions for which we hold rights.
CS: The US market is considered a global leader in live sport streaming with audiences regularly watching a number of live streaming services. In what ways is live sport viewership still evolving in the US? Are there any notable insights you can share about consumption trends across devices/screens and audience demographics?
KC: Sports viewership continues to evolve. We are seeing high growth in consumption and engagement across a multitude of demographics. While streaming is an “all ages game”, buyers are becoming increasingly aware that they may benefit from a strategy that spans streaming and traditional linear to capture the younger skewing streaming audience. We consult brands on the need to consider both pools of inventory to target sports fans. In particular, direct to consumer (DTC) viewers* are a growing faction of fans, highlighting the loyalty and affinity local and regional teams attract. Making them a compelling target audience for both local and national brands.
CS: What are some of the biggest challenges Bally Sports face in the live sport environment and how is technology provided by partners like Magnite helping to manage the complexities of live sport advertising?
KC: Every night of an NBA season, for example, presents a collection of teams on our network tipping off between 7pm and midnight across the country. With thousands of hours of live game coverage, we see large volumes of concurrent users in select regions logging on to see their favorite team play. Together with Magnite as a marketplace and SpringServe as an ad server, we work to forecast seasonal ad delivery patterns and new viewer growth trends, while unifying demand across direct and programmatic channels. Deal diagnostics and health checks are key strategic measures given that live sports consumption can be atypical to what programmatic demand channels are accustomed to. Overall, a day in April may see over 30 teams across all leagues playing on our 19 networks in different time slots, so providing seamless ad experiences and game streams is no small task.
CS: Switching focus to programmatic, how important is programmatic trading in Bally Sports’ monetisation strategy and what are the benefits to advertisers of activating live sport campaigns programmatically?
KC: Programmatic is a valuable revenue stream to our network, particularly given the challenges of forecasting for dozens of teams throughout their seasons. The unpredictability of viewership lends itself to the flexibility of programmatic’s real time nature. Each year, we see some of our franchise partners exceeding pre-season expectations, driving more and more fans to the screen to follow their success. This calls on programmatic to play a key role in monetizing, providing local fandom on a multi-market level.
Aside from managing viewership trends, we simply see more and more brands and agency buying units opting into programmatic deal executions to fulfill upfront commitments or to find sports viewers across a fragmented field of content providers via private marketplaces. Programmatic partnership with Magnite allows us to get the best of both worlds, premium sports audience with the ability to segment and target audiences, for example high net worth viewers for luxury brands.
CS: Can you share any notable examples and outcomes from recent addressable live TV campaigns?
KC: As an industry we have spoken for years about upfronts** being enacted programmatically and are now at a tipping point. Programmatic is an execution method for our deals strategy, a pipe that can be used to deliver upfront dollars. We have upfront partners who lean heavily into live sports, citing it as a vertical that consistently outperforms others. The engagement of the sports fan is really unmatched.
CS: Looking ahead, are there any innovations on the horizon that will make the live sport streaming ad opportunity even more appealing to advertisers?
KC: In-game sponsorships with new and unique ad formats are really interesting, particularly for sports that may not have as many natural ad breaks. As ad technology continues to advance, buying custom units via programmatic channels will become more common.
With a rise in DTC viewing, personalized experiences through more robust first party data can unlock significant value for both the content provider and advertiser.
To learn more about live sports advertising globally and in India, please reach out to the Magnite India team india-team@magnite.com.
*Direct to consumer (DTC) viewers: Viewers who are reached directly via the sports team’s own streaming platforms, capturing subscription fees and advertising revenue without intermediaries.
**Upfronts: Annual TV advertising negotiation periods where broadcasters/networks share their upcoming programming slate to advertisers and agencies, securing a large portion of advertising commitments in advance.