Sports streaming has created an abundance problem: fans have more ways to watch, but finding the right game can require searching across multiple apps, channels and services. A new global study from Gracenote, Nielsen’s content intelligence business, finds that 26% of sports viewers are always or often unable to determine where a specific event is being broadcast, pointing to a growing opportunity for connected TV platforms to make sports discovery a core product feature.
Sports Streaming Has a Discovery Problem, and the TV Home Screen Could Fix It
The sports streaming market has spent years expanding access to live events. The unintended consequence is that fans increasingly need to become detectives before they can watch them.
Gracenote’s 2026 Global Sports Fan Report, Home Screen Advantage, highlights the problem: 26% of respondents say they are always or often unable to identify which channel or service carries a specific sporting event.
The problem is more pronounced among younger viewers. Among respondents aged 18 to 34, 36% frequently cannot determine where to watch the sports they want.
For streaming platforms, pay-TV providers and connected-TV operating systems, that represents more than a usability issue. It is a content discovery and retention problem.
A consumer may subscribe to the service carrying a game but still fail to watch it if they cannot find out where it is available. As sports rights become increasingly distributed across broadcast networks, cable channels, vMVPDs and streaming platforms, the value of owning the content increasingly depends on making that content easy to discover.
Gracenote’s research suggests the TV home screen could become a more important part of that equation.
Fans Want the Home Screen to Become a Sports Guide
According to the study, 85% of respondents want their TV home screen to show upcoming games and competitions for their favorite teams and leagues, along with information about where those events can be watched.
That is a significant shift from treating the home screen primarily as an app launcher.
A modern connected-TV interface can potentially act as an aggregation layer across linear television and streaming services. Instead of forcing viewers to open ESPN, YouTube TV, Paramount+, Peacock or another application individually, the interface can theoretically present upcoming events first and then direct viewers to the appropriate source.
The concept is similar to what search engines did for the web: make fragmented information accessible through a single discovery layer.
But sports adds an important complication. A search result needs to be correct not just about the event, but about where and when it can be watched.
Gracenote found that more than two-thirds of respondents use internet search to locate sports coverage, yet 32% of U.S. respondents say search results always or often lack accurate information about locally televised games.
That makes structured sports metadata increasingly important.
Metadata Becomes the Infrastructure Behind Sports Discovery
Gracenote is positioning its Gracenote On Sports platform around that metadata challenge.
Through a single API, the platform combines sports data, video metadata, schedules, viewing links and imagery covering more than 75 sports and 340 leagues across more than 50 countries, according to the company.
The system uses persistent Gracenote IDs to connect teams, leagues and sporting events with broadcasts, viewing options and related programming.
That architecture matters because sports content is inherently interconnected.
A viewer searching for an upcoming Manchester United match, for example, may also want to see the team’s schedule, live broadcast options, highlights from its previous game, related analysis or a documentary. A metadata layer that understands the relationships between those entities can turn a simple schedule into a broader content hub.
For streaming platforms, that can increase the amount of content they surface around a single event.
It also creates opportunities for personalization. Gracenote’s research found that 67% of respondents were interested in schedules and statistics tailored to the teams and leagues they follow.
The Commercial Stakes Go Beyond Discovery
Better sports discovery could also influence subscription decisions.
The report finds that 68% of respondents subscribe to at least one service because of its sports offering, while half say they would be likely to add another service to gain access to preferred sports programming.
That presents a complicated opportunity for media companies.
On one hand, fragmented rights can encourage consumers to purchase multiple services. On the other, excessive fragmentation can create frustration and make consumers less loyal to individual platforms.
For advertisers, however, a better discovery layer could make live sports inventory easier to reach.
Sports remains one of the most valuable environments in connected TV because live events generate predictable audiences and high engagement. As viewing shifts across broadcast, cable and streaming, the ability to identify exactly which platform carries an event becomes increasingly relevant to CTV advertising planning, audience targeting and measurement.
A unified sports interface could potentially create more opportunities for platforms to surface relevant advertising alongside live events, highlights and related programming.
A Unified Sports Hub Could Change the Role of the TV Interface
Gracenote tested this concept through a web-based demonstration of Gracenote On Sports that combined real-time linear and streaming schedules, viewing options, statistics and links to content across platforms.
The response was strong: 91% of participants said centralizing sports information and where-to-watch details would make it easier to find games and events. More than 45% said centralized schedules could save them at least five minutes when looking for a game or event.
Those numbers point toward a simple but important product principle: reducing the number of steps between wanting to watch something and actually watching it has tangible value.
It also suggests that the next competitive battleground for streaming platforms may not be only content libraries or subscription prices. It could be the intelligence of the interface sitting above those libraries.
Companies such as Google, Amazon, Roku and other connected-TV and streaming ecosystem players already have incentives to improve content discovery. The challenge is making fragmented rights, live schedules and regional availability understandable in real time.
That is where metadata providers and sports-data APIs can become foundational infrastructure rather than back-office services.
Sports Discovery Is Becoming an AdTech Issue
The implications extend beyond the consumer experience.
For AdTech teams, fragmented sports distribution affects CTV inventory discovery, contextual targeting, campaign planning and measurement. A media buyer needs to know not only that a major sporting event exists, but where it will be streamed, which audience is watching and what advertising opportunities are available around it.
As more live sports moves into streaming, the distinction between content discovery and advertising infrastructure becomes less clear.
A connected-TV platform that knows what a viewer wants to watch can potentially become a more valuable advertising environment. But that requires accurate metadata, reliable viewing links, identity resolution and increasingly sophisticated recommendation systems.
Gracenote’s findings therefore highlight a problem that is larger than sports.
The streaming industry’s next challenge may be making an abundance of content feel simple.
For sports fans, the winning experience could be a home screen that answers three questions immediately: What is happening? Where can I watch it? What else should I see?
For media platforms and advertisers, delivering those answers could become a competitive advantage in an increasingly fragmented CTV ecosystem.
Market Landscape
Sports is becoming one of the most important battlegrounds in the CTV and streaming advertising ecosystem, but fragmented rights are making discovery harder.
Gracenote’s research reveals several interconnected trends:
- Rights fragmentation: Live sports are distributed across broadcast, cable, vMVPD and streaming services.
- Discovery friction: Consumers may subscribe to a service but still struggle to identify where a particular event is available.
- Metadata opportunity: Structured schedules, sports entities and viewing links can provide the foundation for unified discovery.
- Personalization: Fans increasingly expect interfaces to prioritize the teams, leagues and sports they follow.
- Advertising implications: Better event discovery can make premium live CTV inventory easier to surface, package and monetize.
The market is also moving toward a more intelligent TV interface. Instead of asking viewers to navigate applications individually, platforms can increasingly aggregate information across services and direct consumers to the appropriate source.
For AdTech, that means content metadata is becoming part of the advertising infrastructure. The better platforms understand what content is being watched and where it is available, the more effectively they can connect audiences, programming and advertising opportunities.
Top Insights
- Gracenote finds 26% of sports viewers frequently cannot identify where specific events are available, exposing a major discovery problem for streaming platforms.
- Younger viewers face greater friction, with 36% of respondents aged 18–34 frequently struggling to determine where desired sports content can be watched.
- Eighty-five percent want TV home screens to surface upcoming games, favorite teams and where-to-watch information across fragmented viewing services.
- Gracenote On Sports combines sports metadata, schedules, viewing links and imagery through one API, supporting unified discovery experiences across streaming platforms.
- Improved sports discovery could benefit CTV advertisers by connecting fragmented live programming with more discoverable, measurable and monetizable audiences.
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