The hunger for live sports was reflected when ESPN’s SportsCenter began broadcasting highlights from the Nebraska state high school basketball tournament, and an NBC regional sports network relied on video game simulations to fill airtime. Devoid of contests to discuss, one sports radio host subjected his listeners to a full breakdown of movies starring Will Ferrell.

Sports broadcasting is transitioning from traditional to digital channels throughout the world. In some areas, disruption is coming from connected TV platforms, while in others, mobile providers—and even legacy media companies—are driving change.

Although the return of more reliable and nearly-full-length sports seasons will help TV, viewers are showing increasing willingness to access sports via livestreaming or to forego them entirely.

“The loss of live sports in H1 2020 contributed to further declines. While sports have returned, people will not return to their old cable or satellite plans.”. That leaves 77.6 million US households with cable, satellite, or telecom TV packages, down 7.5% year-over-year, the biggest such drop ever. Furthermore, that total is down 22.8% from pay TV’s peak in 2014.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and senior forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco discuss whether ride-hailing apps can whether the storm, how much power will Facebook's oversight board actually have, Starbucks reducing its reliance on cash, Amazon possibly buying AMC Theatres, the next wave of sports programming, updated cookie consent, what does yawning tell you about yourself and more.

In the US, disruption in the sports broadcasting industry is coming from league-based subscription services; standalone services run by broadcasters and independent startups; linear OTT providers; and social and digital media companies.

It remains to be seen whether Canada’s stricter rules for gatherings will impact all of the country’s sports teams throughout 2021, including the Canadian Football League, which canceled its 2020 season, and subsequently the associated lucrative place-based inventory of ads. Airport traffic was historically off in 2020, impacting airport advertising.

Sports fans use ESPN+ to watch on-demand sports content like the “30 for 30” documentary series. But most live sports that ABC and ESPN show are not broadcast on this streaming service. Highly viewed games are still reserved for live TV channels through MVPDs and vMVPDs. ESPN+ features some live sports, but the selection is mostly limited to lower-profile games.

eMarketer analyst Ross Benes, forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom, Business Insider Intelligence research associate Daniel Carnahan and senior analyst Audrey Schomer discuss whether the coronavirus might accelerate cord-cutting, whether sports TV rights will shift to digital platforms quicker, how a delayed NFL season could impact ad spending, how many Americans watch sports, what a second COVID-19 wave might do to the leagues and its lasting effects on sports consumption.

Sports fans use ESPN+ to watch on-demand sports content like the “30 for 30” documentaries. But most live sports that ABC and ESPN show are not broadcasted on this streaming service. Highly viewed games are still reserved for live TV channels through MVPDs and vMVPDs. ESPN+ features some live sports, but the selection is mostly limited to lower-profile games.

Not being able to experience live sports at this time, US adults are turning to other alternatives. While these choices vary from sports documentaries to esports competitions, recent data from Morning Consult found that US adults are just as interested in news coverage of the pandemic’s impact on sports as they are on the games themselves.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and senior forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco discuss the arrival of video streaming platform Quibi, what the lasting effects of COVID-19 might be, YouTube's own TikTok, NBCUniversal cutting back on ads, what sports viewers are now watching, what happened in a small Alaskan town in 2002 and more.

eMarketer analyst Ross Benes and forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom discuss what advertisers are doing with those sports programming dollars, how bad cord-cutting might get, the future of spending on original content, and more. They then cover how Disney+ is doing in the US and abroad, Fox Corp.'s recent purchase of Tubi and Hulu viewership growth.

NBCUniversal is accelerating its plans to launch its Checkout platform, a move aimed at helping retailers, particularly those that have temporarily closed during the pandemic, and a way to drive ad revenues as many TV networks are losing billions due to canceled or postponed sports programming.