CTV Live Sports Viewership Will Reach 126.8 Million by 2027

2 Min Read

As we look back on some of the major changes in the world of streaming during 2023, the arena of sports streaming stands out. According to eMarketer, many of the major players began to hit their stride last year — growing to reach more than 95.5 million viewers. One of the stars was Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video. While the programming may have stumbled a bit at the start, Prime managed to rally with some serious advertiser interest and gain hundreds of millions in ad revenue for Amazon. YouTube’s Sunday Ticket also hit a home run: it scored almost a 50% spike in subscriptions during its inaugural year of football broadcasts. Meanwhile, Major League Soccer landed Apple TV+ its best month ever in July, thanks to the superstar magic of Lionel Messi’s debut with Inter Miami.
The next few years will see similar interest for sports streaming, with eMarketer projecting that US digital live sports viewers will reach numbers around 126.8 million by 2027. Football will continue to hog the spotlight as one of the stars of the rights packages race, grabbing hefty advertising dollars on both linear TV and digital channels. After all, with Thursday Night Football and Sunday Ticket rolling out fresh viewing formats and tie-in sports betting capabilities, it’s a whole new ball game. Ultimately, with so much interest from viewers and advertisers alike, it looks like the streaming field is anyone’s any service’s for the taking.

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