The influence of streaming has already impacted sports viewing and will accelerate.

Nielsen just reported that this past May marked the first time streaming viewership exceeded broadcast and cable combined. We’ve already seen the effect of streaming on media deals across leagues. What can we expect as streaming continues to gain in viewership?

More deals for more sports

Sports are a core driver for attracting viewers. Streaming services will continue to use sports as a way to attract subscribers. As such, we can expect a broader market for sports content. This is a good time for younger and less established leagues to get a media deal.

Richer deals for the big sports

We’ve seen some consolidation in the streaming world, but there are still a lot of players and a lot of competition for viewers. Until the market thins out some more, we can expect streamers to spend more on known quantities that attract large and dedicated audiences.

Long-term fragmentation

The fragmentation of viewers will continue as viewers split their time among more and more options. Sports have long been the exception to the shrinking audiences associated with most televised programming. While the nature of sport will likely keep it ahead of other content in terms of appointment viewing, we’re likely to see total audience sizes shrink as sports content becomes less universally accessible and divided over more distribution channels.

Reach vs revenue decisions

As we discussed recently, teams will be increasingly forced to strategize about the tradeoffs in reach vs revenue. The accessibility and reach of broadcast help attract new fans to build future audiences, but the revenue from high-spending streamers brings immediate gains. Leagues and teams will have to get increasingly sophisticated on how they allocate their schedules in an attempt to serve both objectives, setting aside key games and events for broader audiences while using streamers to maximize regular-season revenue.