Amazon is also moving more aggressively than its digital counterparts in sports licensing. While Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all partner with major US sports leagues, they have mostly pivoted to sports-related nongame content, while Amazon has doubled down on full-game streams.

Social media platforms are betting on social audio as part of the creator economy: Live audio is becoming less about the platforms that started the trend as more big firms launch creator-focused features.

Two of the NCAA Division I Power Five conferences (Big Ten and Pac-12) announced that they would postpone all fall college sports as a result of the ongoing pandemic.

The takeaway: As streaming services begin to tap into popular live TV events, clarity in advertising will be key to reaching consumers and satisfying advertisers. The streaming scene is only getting more competitive—now Amazon is getting in on live sports broadcasting—and users may not stick with services that burn them with unclear instructions and 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.

Digital video spending could get a bump from TV’s hit during the pandemic, especially related to sports content, which drives a sizable audience and spend level for live linear TV. In 2020, video will surpass traditional digital display spending in Canada for the first time. Video now makes up 25.8% of all digital ad spending.

There will be 164.8 million monthly live video viewers in the US this year, according to our February 2022 forecast. This group includes both livestreaming viewers as well as those who watch real-time live video content, such as news broadcasts or sports games, via virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) or other subscription OTT apps.

Another blow to the auto industry was the cancellation of live sports. Traditionally, car advertisers invest heavily in linear TV advertising against major sports programming. Some car advertisers pulled a portion of these dollars and planned to reinvest them later in the year.

However, not all of Twitch’s user growth is coming from GVC, as the platform has become increasingly popular for content outside of the gaming world, such as livestreams of traditional sports broadcasts, live events like concerts, and more mainstream influencer content like product tutorials and reviews.

Twitter won’t be producing its own originals just yet, but it will tap into the trend, signing deals with the NBA, WNBA, and NHL for exclusive live sports content and NBCUniversal for exclusive news broadcasts. Say hello to shoppable shows. Shoppable TV advertising has been buzzy for a while, and this year’s NewFronts saw some serious movement on the trend.

According to our estimates, which were finalized prior to the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent cancellation of major sports programming, US TV ad sales were expected to climb 2.0% this year to $72.00 billion, a significant bump from 2019’s 2.5% year-over-year decline to $70.59 billion.

Despite the return of some sporting events like NBA exhibition games and the MLB, marketers are delaying their planned ad spend.

However, we have revised our figures down significantly for many reasons, including the cancellation of the 2020 Summer Olympics, the postponement of live sporting events, and an increase in cord-cutting. US TV ad spending is now expected to decline by 15.0% this year to reach $60 billion, down from $70.59 billion in 2019.

The pandemic created a perfect storm to accelerate cord-cutting: Consumers tightened their wallets, live sporting events were canceled or postponed, and pay TV providers cut back on promotional pricing to sustain profitability. We expect the number of US pay TV households to decline by 7.5% to 77.6 million this year.

“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.

Brands paused, delayed, or reduced ongoing campaign spending during H1 2020 as the economy began to contract and live sports programming stopped. Advertisers were given the option to cancel up to half of their upfront commitment in Q3, a relatively rare occurrence, and the number of cancellations will be greater than expected prior to the pandemic, due to additional economic uncertainty.

Some categories, such as travel, weather, maps, ride-sharing, sports and general retail have seen minutes drop—sometimes dramatically. The steep drop-off in travel, transportation and live sports have offset growth in areas like news, health, education, grocery delivery and business services.

The cancellation of live sports, as well as growing unemployment, will cause some consumers to cancel their cable subscriptions: In fact, 9.2% of respondents to the Business Insider Intelligence Coronavirus Consumer Survey said they had already canceled or were planning to cancel their pay-TV subscription due to the pandemic.

Content production stoppages and uncertainty around when live sports will return make it unclear what programs TV advertisements might appear this fall. These declines equate to the upfronts attracting about $7 billion less in ad spending than we predicted previously. Coming into 2020, strong advertiser demand and a strong live sports slate made us bullish about upfront ad spending.

(By our estimates, the total number of live sports viewers fell 0.2% in 2020 to 154.1 million.) But it’s still uncertain whether the past year will be an outlier or if the downward ratings trend will continue. For CBS, however, the Super Bowl’s smaller audience will likely have no impact on the company’s bottom line since the majority of advertising commitments did not include a ratings guarantee.

We previously expected there to be 80.5 million US pay TV households this year. We updated our forecast in August, and we now believe that figure will decline by 7.5% to 77.6 million. Our pay TV figures exclude virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs), which deliver live TV over the internet.​

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.