Today, consumers have a multitude of ways to access content (i.e. sports, TV shows, sports etc.), and now there are many more ways to get that content to viewers than through the traditional cable and broadcast service providers.
A recent report predicted that direct-to-consumer (DTC) services will transform the way sports, media, and other rights owners appeal to their fans. That Deltatre report, revealed that sports operators worldwide are now spending 15% of their total budgets on OTT, meaning that by 2021 more than US$6.8 billion will be invested in the OTT tech stack in North America alone. OTT stands for over-the-top, initially named in reference to devices that go “over” a cable box to give the user access to TV content.
In OTT channels, content is delivered via an internet connection rather than through a traditional cable/broadcast provider. OTT and video are intertwined, but they are not the same thing. OTT is just a different channel through which video content (and related display or video advertisements) is delivered to end users.
The North American OTT sports content delivery industry will hit $6.8 billion by 2021, according to a recent report by sector specialists, Deltatre. Traditional marketing and distribution in the live sports space is evolving at a rapid rate, helped along by the COVID-19 global health crisis and its behavioral implications.