With summer in Australia well underway, Australians can once again indulge in their love of sports, with everything from the Cricket Test series, the Australian Open and now Rugby’s AON Next Gen Sevens Series keeping Australians busy in the summer months. Magnite’s Juliette Stead, SVP, head of JAPAC, explains why this summer will be huge for OTT streaming.

The rise of live sports streaming has tapped into Australia’s love affair with sports and truly
cemented the new normal of sports-watching in Australia — which has started to move from traditional TV toward CTV/ OTT. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games marked an inflection point for OTT in Australia: it delivered the biggest day of live-streaming in Australian television history.

Juliette Stead, Magnite’s SVP, head of JAPAC

Since 2020, OTT viewing has only increased. Instead of watching sports only on traditional broadcast TV, 74 per cent of Australian sports fans now stream live sports via connected devices.

Here’s a closer look at how Australian sports fans watch their favourite games — and how live OTT viewing in Australia is changing the sports game.

Live OTT Sports Viewing Is Winning

OTT is now a mainstay in Australia, with 81 per cent of Australian video viewers watching OTT at least once a week. Of these OTT users, 82 per cent watch at least one live streaming service.

According to Magnite’s report, Live and Kicking: An In-Depth Look at Live Streaming in Australia, the OTT sports arena brings loyal fans: sports streamers watch an average of five-and-a-half hours of sports programming per week. Meanwhile, 71 per cent of sports programming is viewed in real-time, making viewers highly engaged in the moment-to-moment.

Interestingly, ad breaks are such an ingrained element of sports that two-fifths of sports streamers say that TV ads are an important part of the watching experience. This makes for a highly receptive and engaged audience for sports advertisers. So, it’s not surprising that ad-supported live programming now accounts for 36 per cent of total OTT viewing time. It also gives context for streaming ads’ high impact on viewers: live sports streamers are more likely to discover new products, remember ads, and make a purchase than traditional TV viewers.

Meanwhile, half of sports streamers have discovered new products while watching an ad, which speaks to the addressable targeting capabilities of streaming that traditional broadcast TV can’t necessarily match.

Live OTT Gives Fans a New Way to Watch

Streaming is bringing younger generations back to watching live sports – in part because it provides unique programming with niche sports versus solely the more traditional sports covered on traditional broadcast television.

Many Australians rely on streaming platforms to watch international events and competitions (e.g. Rugby Sevens, Twenty20 Cricket, and European Soccer Leagues). In this way, live streaming reaches untapped audiences with a greater diversity of sports interests.

Regarding how audiences watch, Australians stream sports across mobile and OTT devices. Yet the live sports viewing experience is best enjoyed on larger screens, which is why 84 per cent of OTT viewers regularly watch live sports on CTV.

All the while, live streaming platforms are becoming more mature and creative with programming. For example, through F1’s original live streaming platform, a viewer could choose which car to follow, what racing corner to watch and which commentator to listen to. This ability to tailor the viewing experience to the viewer to ‘make it your own’ is unique to live streaming.

In addition to advertisers being able to reach valuable, engaged audiences through streamed live sports, they also have the option of leveraging programmatic technology to execute on their media buys. This enables flexibility around messaging, pacing and reach and also allows data to be applied to achieve the best campaign results.

The research also shows that live sports viewership extends beyond the game itself; 69% of live sports streamers are likely to watch pre and post-game shows, providing advertisers with the unique ability to reach consumers across an end-to-end viewing experience.

Ultimately, as TV viewing shifts from traditional TV to more and more OTT, 2023 will be a watershed year for live programming, particularly for live sports. As OTT media buying and sports licensing continue to mature, Australians will have more options than ever to watch their favourite games — with live sports as the star player of live OTT.