For Sports Rights Holders, the Future is Digital

When professional sports resumed over the summer following a COVID-19 induced hiatus, the games had quite a different look and feel. The absence of in-person fans left stadiums eerily quiet, which resulted in commentators overcompensating to fill dead air. Some leagues tested with virtual and cardboard fan stand-ins, though neither were particularly effective in replicating the energy of an excited home crowd nor stifling poor television ratings, which have been down across the board. While the sports sector will eventually bounce back, media rights holders will have to reckon with a global audience whose lives and media consumption habits have largely shifted digital…