2026 Local Advertiser’s Guide to Streaming Sports
A media planner’s guide to reaching local sports audiences after the RSN era.
As RSN distribution fractures, local sports inventory is moving across league apps, streaming platforms, vMVPDs, local broadcast partners, direct-to-consumer subscriptions, and programmatic CTV environments. For advertisers, that complexity can either overwhelm your campaign or enable you to reach the perfect audience.
The Local Sports Streaming Playbook gives media planners a practical guide to buying live sports in this new environment.
Download the report to learn:
- How the collapse of the RSN model is reshaping local sports advertising
- What “streaming sports inventory” actually means in 2026 — and why not all sports inventory is created equal
- How DMA and ZIP-level targeting can help local advertisers reach the markets that matter most
- When to plan around upfront, scatter, and high-demand sports windows
- What measurement questions to ask before a campaign goes live
- The five biggest gotchas in today’s streaming sports landscape
- How to pitch streaming sports to local clients with more clarity and confidence
Why this matters now
Live sports still delivers the kind of attention local advertisers want, but the path to that attention is no longer built around a single RSN package.
A single sports buy may now involve multiple platforms, rights holders, inventory types, and geographic rules. Without a clear framework, local advertisers can end up buying something labeled “sports” without knowing whether it means live in-game inventory, shoulder content, highlights, or an audience proxy.
This guide helps planners ask the right questions, separate real live game inventory from broader sports-adjacent opportunities, and build campaigns around the geographies where local clients actually do business.
Built for media planners working with local advertisers
Whether you work with auto dealers, healthcare systems, QSRs, regional banks, retailers, franchise groups, or local services, the challenge is delivering live sports locally, efficiently, and with proof.
This guide will make that easier.
Download The Local Sports Streaming Playbook and learn how to help local advertisers reach live sports audiences across streaming environments with more precision, better planning, and clearer measurement.