Rights owners must embrace multi-format strategies as 18-34-year-olds spend nearly three times longer watching non-live content than full matches
Altman Solon has just released its annual Global Sports Survey, which reveals that sports viewing is continuing to grow, most notably among 25–34-year-olds, where total consumption has increased 6% in the last three to five years.
This group watches over four hours of live sports per week, while consuming significantly more highlights and other non-live formats.
Meanwhile, 18–34-year-olds spend nearly three times as much time on non-live formats as on live sports. These fans are less likely to watch full live games – just 39% of 18–24-year-olds typically watch the entire event, compared with 61% among fans aged 65 and over.
To engage fans in 2026, Altman Solon suggests rights owners evolve toward a multi-format, multi-channel offering, acknowledging that sports consumption is no longer anchored in linear TV.
Format preferences vary widely by age, says Altman Solon, requiring new approaches to fan engagement, rights packaging, licensing, and monetisation.
Specifically, the rise of creator-led and AI-enabled content is creating new opportunities for rights owners and platforms to build value through smarter packaging and product innovation.
The study includes input from 250 senior global sports executives and 6,000 sports fans across the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France.
“Our findings support renewed optimism and challenge some of the narratives of recent years that younger generations won’t engage with sports content,” says David Dellea, partner at Altman Solon. “Younger fans simply consume differently, with streaming services and short-form content increasingly serving as their preferred gateway to sports content.”
“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,” adds Matt Del Percio, associate partner at Altman Solon. “Sports monetisation gains will be increasingly driven by leveraging fan and team data, not just live broadcasts.”
“Sports are evolving into a comprehensive, multi-tiered asset class,” says Christoph Sommer, associate partner at Altman Solon. “With premium assets scarce, we expect more capital to move toward mid-tier properties and the technology and services layer underpinning the sports economy.”
This is the seventh edition of the annual Altman Solon Global Sports Survey.
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