Between the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, March Madness, NBA All Star game and soccer’s World Cup, the sporting planets are aligned for a blockbuster media season through this summer.
Media owners and broadcasters (especially NBCU, which holds the rights to several of the biggest live sports events this spring) are thrilled about the coming windfall. Dentsu’s 2026 forecast report estimated that live sports spending would push overall global advertising to reach $1.04 trillion this year. This week, Disney reported its operating income from sports ads grew 10% in the first quarter of 2026.
But there’s a dilemma for advertisers hoping to capitalize on the audiences tuning in. With so much ground to cover, should marketers spread their budgets across the entire surface area — or concentrate their efforts in one or two?
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