Nielsen cracked open its numbers for sport in 2016 as part of the annual Nielsen Year in Sports Media Report, examining the engagement with the Olympics, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, Indycar, UFC, soccer, golf, college sports and hockey. “If sports in 2016 taught us anything, it’s that despite the proliferation of devices and unprecedented media fragmentation, sports programming continues to thrive,” noted Stephen Master, Regional Head of Revenue for Nielsen Sports. “As connectivity rises, connections suffer, but sports provide an ideal vehicle for brands to integrate with content and reach passionate consumers.”
Overall, more than 8,000 parent brands were tracked in Nielsen’s North American Sport24 syndicated sponsorship media valuation database, garnering $7.4 billion in QI Media value. Gatorade led all brands tracked in Sport24, with a presence across every major league and 53% of its exposure value coming from NFL game broadcasts. State Farm received the second-highest QI Media Value, with 75% of it coming from NBA broadcasts.
Meanwhile, Nielsen Sports also broke out the science behind “what’s next,” as it relates to measuring fans’ consumption behavior, monetizing content across platforms and creating deeper partnerships across the sports ecosystem. Breakout conclusions included: Esports evolving from niche to mainstream; richer, deeper partnerships across the sports ecosystem built around content; OTT, social media and out-of-home viewing creating a truly omnichannel environment; edging closer to cracking the code on ROI; and data becoming driving force in optimizing fan relationships and maximizing revenue.