Sports fans don’t care where content comes from – and the industry is responding accordingly

The sports industry is providing an early glimpse of how the creator economy is merging with traditional broadcasting and streaming.

Across the sector, creators, athletes and traditional media talent are increasingly working together with one goal seemingly in mind: extending fan engagement far beyond the live match.

It’s a shift that has become visible in a string of recent developments and suggests the old playbook for sports media is beginning to change.

Last week, Major League Baseball announced it had expanded its global partnership with TikTok, giving creators greater access to league footage and behind-the-scenes moments in order to deepen fan engagement. The move echoes a similar arrangement between FIFA and TikTok ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Broadcasters are experimenting too. NBCUniversal integrated dozens of creators into its coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and expanded the model again during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano–Cortina.

On the agency side, new infrastructure is emerging to support these partnerships, evidenced by Publicis Groupe’s recent launch of Influential Sports.

What’s driving the shift? Economics – or at least that’s how executives across streaming platforms explain it.

The sports playbook

At MIP London last week, executives from Tubi, Pluto TV and DAZN offered a glimpse into how streaming platforms are adapting.

While each company is approaching the shift slightly differently, they share the same goal of using creators and athlete personalities to keep fans engaged long after the final whistle.

“The simple answer is economics,” said Walker Jacobs, global chief revenue officer at DAZN. “We’re trying to understand how we reach new audiences and how we monetise those audiences in different ways.”

For DAZN, creator-led programming is a way to get more value out of expensive sports rights.

The company develops creator-driven shows through its Team Whistle content studio, producing programmes featuring athletes and influencers that launch first on the platform before being distributed across social media and podcast platforms.

Streaming platform Tubi is focusing on a different opportunity: the growing importance of personality-driven storytelling around sport.

David Salmon, managing director of international at Tubi, said the traditional distinction between professional content, creator content and user-generated video is becoming less relevant to audiences.

“The boundaries… are blurring,” he said. “Consumers don’t really care.”

Instead, platforms are building programming around athletes, creators and the stories behind major tournaments.

Tubi has experimented with athlete-led projects tied to major events, including a documentary with tennis player Naomi Osaka released around the U.S. Open and a podcast hosted by Australian player Nick Kyrgios during the Australian Open.

Free ad-supported platforms are approaching the strategy from another angle.

Olivier Jollet, executive vice president and international general manager at Pluto TV, said sports can act as a powerful way to bring new viewers onto the platform and encourage them to explore its wider entertainment catalogue. 

Pluto has experimented with formats designed to blend sports fandom and creator culture, including crossover events involving professional darts players and footballers as well as talk shows hosted by sports creators.

A model that travels?

The pattern emerging in sports may offer a preview of how creator-led media develops in other sectors.

Sport is particularly well suited to the shift because it already revolves around personalities and shared moments – the same ingredients creators rely on to build and sustain their audiences.

In fact, the lesson from these recent experiments may be simple: if audiences are already there, it may be easier to work with creators than compete against them.

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