IAB: Sports drove adoption of streaming platforms in 2024
Some broadcasters are making certain sports programs available exclusively through their streaming platforms, while services like Netflix and Amazon are aggressively pursuing similar rights.
Efforts by some traditional and connected television distributors to move more sports programming over to streaming services paid off in the form of higher connected TV(CTV) advertising on those platforms last year, according to a new report released by IAB this week
The data was revealed in IAB’s “2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report: Part One” released on Monday, which showed that CTV advertising grew 16 percent over a 12-month period last year compared to the same time frame in 2023. The uptake in CTV advertising was spurred by more high-profile live events like football, baseball and soccer games being made available on streaming, even as most of those events continued to be accessible on traditional TV platforms like broadcast, cable and satellite.