Younger sports fans watching more, just not live

Sports industry confidence is running high, with the Winter Olympics in the books and the World Cup on the horizon, but the data underneath that optimism paints a more complex picture.

Growth is real, the audience is expanding and the formats driving that expansion are increasingly outside the traditional live broadcast window.

Those are among the central findings of the seventh edition of the “Global Sports Survey” from Altman Solon, a strategy consulting firm. The study draws on responses from 250 senior sports executives and a survey of 6,000 fans across the U.S., U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy and France, conducted in December 2025 by research agency IRIS Sport.

Eighty-eight percent of industry leaders said they are optimistic about the sector’s outlook over the next 12 months, with 43% reporting a more positive view than a year ago.

Younger fans are watching more, but differently

For years, sports media executives have expressed concern that younger audiences were disengaging from sports content. The survey data complicates that narrative.

Among 25-to-34-year-olds, total sports consumption is the highest of any age group surveyed and has grown 6% compared to three to five years ago. That cohort watches more than four hours of live sports per week, comparable to older viewers, while consuming considerably more highlights and non-live content on top of that.

Younger fans are, not surprisingly, consuming sports differently, with short-form content and streaming serving as the gateway. 

Among 18-to-34-year-olds broadly, the shift away from live is more pronounced. That group spends nearly three times as much time on non-live formats as on live broadcasts. And while 61% of fans aged 65 and older said they typically watch a full live event, just 39% of 18-to-24-year-olds said the same.

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For broadcasters and rights holders, that gap has implications beyond viewership metrics — it shapes how content is packaged, distributed and ultimately sold.

Rights, streaming and the monetization gap

The survey points to growing pressure on the traditional live-rights model as the primary engine of sports monetization. As consumption spreads across formats and platforms, willingness to pay tends to be lower for non-live content, creating what Altman Solon describes as a monetization gap.

“Major media groups are using sports to accelerate their shift to streaming, while pure-play platforms are moving into live content to strengthen ad-supported tiers and challenge entrenched incumbents, all in pursuit of new users,” said David Dellea, partner at Altman Solon, to NCS. “Momentum is also building around new top-of-funnel partners.”

He added that streaming platforms are unlikely to pursue broad, comprehensive rights deals.

“Streamer appetite is unlikely to lead to full-coverage deals, but rather into selective rights that serve clear strategic objectives,” said Dellea.

The report also flags creator-led and AI-enabled content as factors enabling greater differentiation, offering rights owners and platforms new tools to build value through packaging and product development.

One area of the report receiving attention from rights owners is the prevalence of unauthorized viewing, particularly among younger audiences.

“Piracy is prevalent, especially among under-35s, with more than 1 in 5 sports viewers using unofficial channels,” said Dellea. “Unofficial streams are a costly leakage but also a demand signal for rights owners, effectively forming a community of high-interest younger fans that can be converted when the official experience is different in accessibility and pricing.”

On the investment side, industry leaders surveyed said they expect capital to remain concentrated in teams and clubs in the near term, while accelerating in services and sports technology.

“With premium assets scarce, we expect more capital to move toward mid-tier properties and the technology and services layer underpinning the sports economy,” said Christoph Sommer, associate partner at Altman Solon.

Two additional chapters from the survey are available here, focusing on sports IP value and sports investment trends.

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