Sponsored by DIRECTV Advertising • May 14, 2026 •
Drew Groner, svp, head of sales and marketing, DIRECTV Advertising
Live sports remain one of the last true appointment-viewing experiences — audiences don’t just tune in; they plan their schedules around it. That kind of attention is increasingly rare in modern media, and it is precisely why advertising inventory during live sports commands a premium.
However, every new rights deal in which leagues and teams change distribution channels adds another app, another login and another siloed audience, creating a headache for buyers trying to reach fans at scale. The old sports advertising playbook, organized around rights holders and individual networks, simply doesn’t work anymore.
Why aggregation is a necessity
