A Whole New Ballgame: Advertising in the Age of Sports Streaming

It’s no secret – we’re a nation who loves our sports and with the world’s biggest soccer tournament kicking off this summer, fan excitement is at an all-time high. Roku is launching a dedicated Sports Zone just in time for the action, making it easier than ever for fans to discover and stream their favourite games and highlights. 

U.S. Sports Zone example. Subject to change.   

More than three-quarters  (77%) of Canadians describe themselves as “sports fans”, with 29% describing themselves as “big fans”, according to a study by the Strategic Counsel. And when we watch sports, we’re tuning in the millions – in 2025, every single one of top 10 most-watched TV broadcasts in Canada was a sports broadcast. 

The way we watch is changing too. While live sports used to be the exclusive domain of linear TV, an increasing number of Canadians are now shifting to streaming platforms. 

Sporting events get the biggest audiences, and the live streaming figures are also starting to show it. February 8, 2026, the day of Super Bowl LX, was Crave’s biggest day for live streaming in its history, and in November 2025, the 112^th Grey Cup saw a 27% year-on-year increase in streaming audiences on TSN. 

According to GWI, the majority of Canadians are streaming some sport – a study from the end of 2025 found that 52% of Canadians now stream at least one sports league. 

The trend is clear – as  more TV viewing audiences move from linear to streaming, so too do sports audiences. And as streaming platforms continue to acquire rights to broadcast live sports, and sports fandoms continue to grow, the opportunities for advertisers will multiply. 

How to Engage the New Generation of Sports Streamers 

 As we found out in 2026 VOD Evolution, our annual study into streaming preferences and behaviours in Canada, many Canadians are finding that streaming now satisfies all their TV needs, with almost half (48%) of streamers reporting they’d watched no cable at all in the past month, and 14% saying they’d cut the cord for good.  

Roku VOD Evolution, Canada 2026 Study.

It appears that for many Canadians, streaming also satisfies all of their sports needs. According to a survey by Rogers Sports & Media, more than a quarter (28.5%) of “sports fans” consume live sports exclusively through streaming.  

 The same study found that subscriptions for all of the main sports streamers – including Sportsnet+, TSN+, FuboTV, MLB.TV, and DAZN – rose from 2024 to 2025.  

The New MVP: Why Streaming Platforms Are Going All-In on Sports 

As Canadians move to streaming platforms to get their sports fix, streaming platforms are providing more of it. 

In recent years, we’ve seen streaming platforms securing exclusive rights to broadcast sports – notable examples include Amazon Prime Video’s acquisition of Monday Night Hockey, Netflix picking up WWE Raw, and Apple TV buying Major League Soccer. In October 2025, Disney bought the majority stake in Fubo TV, a sports streaming channel. 

Sports programming is also expanding rapidly across FAST channels. Gracenote’s 2025 State of Play report found that after entertainment, sports is the most common genre among FAST channels.  At the end of 2025, the analysis of more than 2,000 FAST channels on five global SVOD services – Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ – found that sports FAST channels were offering 17.5% more programming compared with the past quarter.

 Meanwhile, sports fandoms are growing. For example, women’s sport has surged in popularity over recent years. Research by Canadian Women & Sport, an organization dedicated to promoting gender equality in sport, found that Canada’s professional women’s sports market had doubled in size in just two years.  

 Sports fandom tends to be strong – Canadians spent more than $3.2 billion on sports merchandise in a single year – and fans will follow their favourite teams to the streaming platforms they appear on.  

However, with different streaming platforms offering different sports content, even the same league being shown across several different platforms, there is the risk of audiences fragmenting. According to Emarketer sports fans divide their attention between leagues, streaming, TV and betting apps. 

Streamers may also become frustrated as they search channels, trying to find their match before kickoff – our study found that more than half (54%) of streamers never know which streaming service has the content they’re looking for.

This is where Sports Zone comes in.

 U.S. Sports Zone example. Subject to change.    

Sports Zone solves the audience fragmentation problem

Sports Zone helps streamers follow their favourite sports teams by putting all the content they’re looking for – games, highlights, replays – in one place, so that fans don’t have to flip through channels or navigate through multiple menus to find what they’re looking for.

By keeping content from different channels in one place, Sports Zone solves for the audience fragmentation problem, makes the viewing experience seamless for streamers, and offers brands the opportunity to reach an engaged audience with more relevant ads based on first-party and behavioural data.

By taking them straight to the match streaming and Sports Zone offer sports fans a unique experience, while transforming the playing field for advertisers.

Don't get left on the sidelines. Get in touch and learn how your brand can score big with Roku's upcoming Sports Zones.