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Roku's recently released 2024 predictions reveal exciting insights for the coming year. In this blog, we will discuss why niche sports are poised for a breakout year and how advertisers can benefit. Read on for more.
Transformations are underway in the sports marketing arena.
Large advertisers have long prized the quintessential advertising opportunities provided by the Olympics, World Cup soccer, and other tier-one sporting events. But these tentpoles are scarce, with limited advertising inventory that commands top dollar and sponsorship deals that are locked down years in advance.
Meanwhile, consumers are exasperated by the difficulty of finding sports. For example, Roku users are more confident that they can find where to watch a live NFL game on linear TV than where to stream one on Roku.¹ People must now subscribe to multiple platforms to create something close to a comprehensive sports viewing experience.
An opening for unsung sports
In 2024, the high demand and significant pain points around discovery of sports content (for consumers) and sponsorship opportunities (for brands) will set the stage for niche sports to break through.
We've already seen under-the-radar sports reach larger audiences in 2023. Women's College Basketball enjoyed 62% greater linear TV reach during March Madness compared to the prior year.² The WNBA also had 64% higher linear TV reach in June, its first full month of the season. Since then, linear TV reach for the WNBA in an average month has been 31% higher than in 2022.³
To take another example, households that searched for Netflix’s “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” series on Roku in the past year were 4.6x more likely than average to tune in to a Formula 1 Grand Prix race on linear TV in May 2023.⁴
Opportunities for advertisers
Brands are recognizing the opportunities presented by underappreciated sports. In 2022, Ally Financial pledged to direct half of its media dollars to women’s sports to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex.⁵
Those efforts have paid dividends, according to Ally Financial CMO Andrea Brimmer:
In 2024, sports like the WNBA, Formula 1, and sporting events like the Tour de France will find bigger audiences in the US and beyond — and we expect one will break through in a big way, achieving audience reach on par with a tier-one event. And as the sports audience pie grows, new opportunities will emerge for smart advertisers to reach sports fans both on and off the gridiron. Game on.
To learn more, read Roku’s full 2024 predictions.
¹ Internal Roku Survey Data on NFL discoverability, 2023
² Internal Roku Data, 2023
³ Internal Roku Data, 2023
⁴ Internal Roku Data, 2023
⁵ Ally pledges equality in media spend, issues bold call to action to further drive parity in women's sports
