Leaders in Live: A look at the rise of live sport streaming advertising with Foxtel Media

The rise of streaming has cemented a new normal for live sport viewing globally, offering new and exciting advertising opportunities across streaming platforms, and connecting brands with highly engaged sport 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 Foxtel Media about the momentum of live sport streaming in Australia and how to deliver the optimal ad break.

Chandrahas Shetty: For those that may not be familiar, please can you provide an overview of Foxtel Media and the scale and notable trends of the audiences streaming sport live on your services?

John Matthews: Foxtel Media serves as the advertising division of Foxtel Group, managing ad placements across all Foxtel platforms, including our traditional pay TV service and streaming brands Foxtel Now and Foxtel Go. Over the past six years, we’ve expanded our content offerings with the launch of Kayo Sports, BINGE for premium entertainment, and most recently, Hubbl, our streaming and free-to-air aggregation service.

Kayo Sports, our flagship sports streaming brand, boasts an audience of over 1.6 million subscribers. With more than 50 sports available live and on demand, Kayo covers everything from local favourites like Australian Football league (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) to global sports, including F1, cricket, and the NBA.

From an advertising standpoint, Kayo is a top priority for our future growth. Sport uniquely attracts advertisers, as it’s one of the few content types with guaranteed viewership at specific times each week. This reliability offers advertisers a rare opportunity to secure large, scaled audiences at predictable moments. The Kayo platform also offers incredible outcomes for brands, with our FoxTest research finding that Kayo viewers are 17 times more likely to stay put during ads and 40 times more likely to seek out brands after being exposed to ads.

CS: Streaming services have transformed the live sport viewing experience for sport fans. Can you speak about the ways in which Foxtel Media has innovated to elevate the viewing experience and optimise the ad break?

JM: Kayo Sports was designed with the customer at its core, aiming to transform how Australian sports fans experience live action. Many features that are now standard across the industry were groundbreaking when we launched in 2018. For example, Split Screen allowed viewers to watch up to four events simultaneously on one screen—something unprecedented for the average fan at the time.

We introduced Kayo Minis and Bites—condensed replays that offer a comprehensive overview of key fixtures in a fraction of the time it takes to watch a full game. These features have been game changers, especially for overnight content like F1 and international cricket. Moreover, it fits in with the lifestyle of our Kayo subscribers who are often time-poor professionals. On average, Kayo users watch 3.8 Minis and 7.6 Bites per month.

Ad innovation is currently somewhat limited due to the use of digital ad insertion during existing TV ad breaks, following the standard 15 or 30 second format. However, a key advantage of our platform is that we don’t interrupt events during play, and only show ads during breaks, which distinguishes us from traditional free-to-air broadcasters.

As we expand our ad inventory into our VOD content we are exploring more innovative ad formats. However this always needs to be balanced with maintaining the highest possible viewing experience for our customers.

CS: Can you help us bust the myth that IO based buying is the only way to trade across live sport inventory? What benefits does programmatic offer advertisers?

JM: Historically live sports content was the realm of large advertisers with big budgets as the amount of spots available through a linear broadcast was by its very nature limited, with the increase in streaming and programmatic we have really seen the democratisation of sports advertising and an increase in accessibility. Programmatic allows advertisers to purchase a small and targeted subset of the total audience available, meaning that you no longer need hundreds of thousands of dollars to access live sports inventory and in fact through programmatic the barriers to entry can be low.

Direct IO buying is and for the foreseeable future will be the main way that advertisers access our inventory as we do year long integrated sponsorships into our different sports codes.

Having said that, programmatic advertising is a large and growing part of our proposition with up to 30% of our advertisers transacting in this way across Programmatic Guaranteed (PG), Unreserved Fixed Rate (UFR) and Open Auction (OA).

This unlocks a new pool of advertisers who don’t typically engage with major media agency holding groups. As independent agencies grow—often without the same trading and investment resources—and with large advertisers increasingly bringing media buying in-house, programmatic buying becomes essential. It offers a streamlined, efficient way to work with us, while providing access to some of the most premium and highly sought-after inventory in Australia.

CS: With more advertisers looking to programmatically activate live sport campaigns. How is Foxtel Media enabling competition between direct sold and programmatic and what impact is this having on your business?

JM: Forecasting future inventory in the live sporting environment can be complex as there are so many factors at play, ranging from the quality of the teams, exclusivity of content, day and time of week, add to this the one beauty that brings people to watching sport and that is the narrative that a single game can have. Whilst using sophisticated data led modelling can get you so far, you always need the human element and knowledge of sport as an overlay.

Effective collaboration between ad operations and sales teams is essential to align inventory availability with the sales cycle. Our clients vary in their approaches: some commit to season-long sponsorships, others follow quarterly planning, and recently, we’ve seen a rise in short-term campaign activity due to the more challenging advertising landscape.

To manage yield effectively, we must maintain constant oversight. While we may occasionally be fully booked, short-term inventory can become available, requiring swift action to bring it to market within days. Advertiser demand for our content remains high, so refining and optimising our processes across various buying models is crucial to maximising yield.

CS: Data layering and activation are critical to the effectiveness of campaigns to help brands better connect with their audiences at scale and with precision. How can advertisers lean-in to live streaming’s addressability?

JM: The strength of the Kayo product lies in the fact that 100% of users are logged in and verified, as they are paying subscribers. Additionally, being a live sports platform, users visit regularly and frequently, with the average customer consuming 3.7 sports per month and accessing Kayo 8.6 times per week. This creates highly addressable audiences for advertisers looking to run campaigns on the platform.

Kayo’s addressable advertising product, Characters, allows advertisers to run targeted campaigns using their own first-party data for precise 1:1 matching or broader audience segments like Auto Intenders or Grocery Shoppers. This approach minimises audience wastage, enabling advertisers to reach specific customer segments or, for those seeking mass reach, create tailored ads based on the audience segment, resulting in a more personalised and contextual advertising experience.

Recently, we’ve also introduced Characters based on viewing habits, so if an advertiser wants to target AFL fans but can’t buy directly into AFL content, we can still reach those customers as they watch other sports or shows on the platform.

CS: Australia is one of the most advanced streaming TV and programmatically advanced markets. What advice do you have for broadcasters and advertisers that are treading the same path in India?

JM: Programmatic advertising in live sports is complex and challenging. With massive traffic spikes and multiple technology vendors to coordinate in a short timeframe, it’s crucial to collaborate closely with all partners to deliver the best possible advertising experience. At Kayo Sports, we’ve worked closely with key partners like Magnite to test, optimise, and enhance the ad experience for both customers and advertisers. Partnering with those who truly understand the space and can leverage insights from other markets is vital for accelerating the learning curve and driving better outcomes.

To learn more about live sports advertising globally and in India, please reach out to the Magnite India team india-team@magnite.com.

Read more about live sports streaming advertising in the US market in this article with Bally Sports.