Sports media is fragmenting across platforms, forcing brands to rethink how they connect with fans.
Tim Scanlan, Vice President of Sports Broadcast at Octagon, explains that success now comes from creativity, focus, and understanding where to play.
He points to two winning strategies, embedding into fan culture or moving fast in digital, and warns that ownership and highlight rights will define what comes next.
Two strategies are winning in sports advertising today. One is the long game, where brands weave themselves into fan rituals and become part of the culture that surrounds the game. The other is the fast lane, driven by the speed of digital platforms and the immediacy of online trends. Both work, and as streaming and fragmentation continue to reshape how fans watch, a single principle explains their success: obsession and creativity still win.
Few people understand the shifting world of sports media quite like Tim Scanlan. Now Vice President of Sports Broadcast at Octagon, and formerly a longtime ESPN executive who rose through the ranks to lead Talent Management and Production, he’s spent his career watching the industry reinvent itself in real time. For Scanlan, this new era calls for a completely different mindset, guided by one simple philosophy.
"Obsession and creativity always win. In sports especially, where loyalty runs deep and platforms keep multiplying, the brands that stay focused and take creative risks are the ones that break through. The most committed teams and the most creative brands will always find a way to win that race," says Scanlan. He explains that brands now face a defining choice: align with the content itself, like a league such as the NFL, or with the delivery system that delivers it to fans, like ESPN or Amazon Prime.
That decision sets the tone for everything that follows, leading either to deep, long-term integration into fan culture or to the fast, culturally fluent energy of the internet.
The long game: "Home Depot embedded themselves into the fabric of College GameDay. They knew that if you're a fan of Alabama, you remain a fan for life. It's the young people coming out of college that will be buying homes and therefore products to maintain that home."
The fast lane: For brands that thrive on speed rather than stability, there’s another path entirely. "Then you have edgy brands like Supreme that use the social fabric intelligently," Scanlan notes. "They go where their consumers are and unveil products in a creative way, whether it's through targeted YouTube programming or a surprise product drop on TikTok."
The loyalty factor: The power behind both strategies stems from sports being one of the last things people have to watch live, driven by an allegiance to teams that is remarkably durable. "The reason sports works so well is that it's live, and there's the loyalty factor. If you're a fan of the Cowboys or the Seattle Mariners, you're watching that game regardless of what platform it's on."
For fans, this new era is reshaping the viewing experience. Many are trading the simplicity of a single cable package for a do-it-yourself approach, curating their own mix of services in the "Great Rebundling." While the payoff is a new level of personalization, Scanlan's own experience illustrates the financial reality for many.
A cord-cutter's paradox: "I have to laugh," Scanlan admits. "I cut the cord and got rid of cable, but I feel like the same money I was paying Comcast for years I'm now paying across five different companies. The price point is just about the same when you add it all up." To escape the costly cycle of ever-increasing rights fees, some media companies are making their own power plays, buying stakes in the leagues themselves to own content outright and share in the upside. The strategy helps protect them from future bidding wars and gives them a stronger hold on the value they help create.
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em: "Every time ESPN has to increase the amount they pay the NFL, that changes the value of adverts and the price of subscriptions," Scanlan explained. "So, if you can minimize that by owning the content, you can enjoy the upside," he adds, pointing to deals between Fox and IndyCar, ESPN and the NFL's RedZone, and ESPN's investment in the Premier Lacrosse League.
As the streaming competition enters a new phase, the next point of contention is social media, where the value of highlights is being reconsidered at the highest levels. "What if the major leagues decide to stop providing free highlights to Meta, TikTok, or X? You run the risk of alienating the young fans who are so loyal to you. But will the platforms pay for those rights? That is being discussed at the highest levels," Scanlan explains. The question looms as established players like ESPN build their own TikTok-style feeds, preparing for a future where content may no longer flow freely.
That principle of direct access, Scanlan suggests, now extends beyond corporations to individuals. "Everyone is walking around with a media company in their pocket. You can share your perspective with the world in a single post."
