Key Points
- Most sports executives have expressed optimism about the industry’s short-term outlook, driven primarily by shifting fan consumption habits and stronger investor confidence.
- Younger fans aged 18 to 34 spend nearly three times as much time on non-live sports content as live events, with streaming and short-form content serving as their preferred gateway.
- The survey identifies a monetization gap as viewing expands beyond live games, with creator-led and AI-enabled content opening new revenue opportunities for rights owners and platforms.
The premium sports industry is entering a new growth phase that is driven by shifting fan consumption habits and stronger confidence from sports and media executives, according to a new report released by Altman Solon.
This week, the global strategy firm released the seventh edition of its Global Sports Survey, which draws on input from 250 senior global sports executives and a survey of 6,000 sports fans across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy and France.
The report makes the case that optimism is high across the sports industry, with 88 percent of executives expressing a positive outlook for the sector over the next year.
Forty-three percent said their view is more positive than it was a year ago, Altman Solon’s report said, and optimism is particularly strong among investors and technology service providers — an indication that capital inflows and innovation across the ecosystem continue.
Fan behavior is reinforcing that confidence: Sports viewing remains strong across age groups and is growing, most notably among 25-to-34-year-olds, where total consumption is the highest of any demographic cohort and has increased 6 percent compared to three to five years ago. That group watches more than four hours of live sports per week, on par with older audiences, while consuming significantly more highlights and non-live content.
Among 18-to-34-year-olds, the shift is more pronounced: they spend nearly three times as much time on non-live formats as on live sports, Altman Solon noted.
“Our findings support renewed optimism and challenge some of the narratives of recent years that younger generations won’t engage with sports content,” said Altman Solon Partner David Dellea. “Younger fans simply consume differently, with streaming services and short-form content increasingly serving as their preferred gateway to sports content.”
The data also reveals meaningful differences in how age groups engage with live events. Among 18-to-24-year-olds, 39 percent typically watch an entire event, compared with 61 percent of fans aged 65 and older. Those gaps require sports executives and rights owners to develop multi-format, multichannel strategies as media consumption moves away from linear television, the report offered.
“We believe the industry is entering a new era of accelerated transformation, where the scale of opportunity matches the scale of change required to capture it,” Altman Solon Associate Partner Matt Del Percio said in a statement this week. “Sports monetization gains will be increasingly driven by leveraging fan and team data, not just live broadcasts.”
The survey also identifies a monetization gap as viewing expands beyond live games, noting that willingness to pay tends to be lower for non-live formats. The rise of creator-led and AI-enabled content, the report says, is opening new avenues for rights owners and platforms to build value through differentiated packaging and product innovation.
“Sports are evolving into a comprehensive, multi-tiered asset class,” said Altman Solon Associate Partner Christoph Sommer. “With premium assets scarce, we expect more capital to move toward mid-tier properties and the technology and services layer underpinning the sports economy.”
Altman Solon said it will release two additional chapters from the survey in the coming weeks, focusing on unlocking the full value of sports intellectual property and the next frontier for sports investment. More information about the study is available by clicking or tapping here.
