VO Industry Insights: New research highlights the rise of interactive sports viewing, APAC streaming growth continues, and Disney is moving into vertical video.
[Parks Associates]
Plenty of interesting data to chew over in the latest research paper from Parks Associates, Streaming Live Sports: Where Opportunity Meets Complexity. Our attention though was immediately grabbed by the section on the importance of fan engagement and interactivity.
This says that sports viewing is shifting from a passive activity to a participatory, interactive experience, with features such as multiview, in-game stats, alternative broadcasts, and betting drawing fans deeper into live events.
According to Parks, 52% of US sports viewers have used at least one interactive feature while watching live sports, highlighting that interactivity is now mainstream rather than niche.
The most common interactive behavior is watching multiple games at once (26%), followed by placing bets via online apps (19%) and viewing integrated live stats (16%). Features such as alternative broadcasts and timeline tools that jump to key moments are also gaining traction. These interactions not only increase engagement, but also create valuable data opportunities for leagues, platforms, and brands to better understand viewer preferences and behavior.
As expected, interactivity is popular with younger audiences. 80% of viewers under the age of 35 have used interactive features, with the highest engagement among 18–44-year-olds. While older viewers participate less, interactive tools such as multiview and stats still have broad appeal across age groups.
Sports betting stands out as both a major opportunity and a technical challenge. 32% of sports viewers find in-stream betting attractive overall, rising to 57% among 25–44-year-olds, though interest drops sharply among viewers over 55. Parks even characterizes this demographic’s response to the technology as ‘heavily negative’.
Niche sports fans seem to show the highest propensity to bet, while major leagues remain lucrative due to sheer audience scale despite lower per-viewer participation. However, betting depends heavily on low latency and accurate real-time data, as delays can directly impact outcomes. Overcoming these challenges is seen as the key to unlocking sports betting and other forms of gamification
Overall, the most appealing interactive features are those already common on streaming and CTV sports platforms, including multiple broadcasts, multiview, DVR, and in-game analytics. The report concludes that while delivering these experiences requires significant technical sophistication, interactivity is becoming central to engaging younger fans and an extremely important factor in ensuring the long-term health of sports broadcasting.
The new Asia-Pacific Video & Broadband 2026 report from Media Partners Asia finds that total screen revenues across APAC will continue to grow through 2030. However, almost all of that growth will come from streaming, social video, and connected TV (CTV), while traditional television is expected to remain under sustained pressure.
Between 2025 and 2030, premium VOD (defined as SVOD plus branded or premium AVOD) is forecast to add $12.5 billion in incremental revenue, reaching $52 billion by the end of the decade. Over the same period, user-generated and social video revenues are projected to grow by $11.4 billion to $44.5 billion, making creator-led platforms the largest single growth engine in the regional screen economy.
This is in stark contrast to traditional TV revenues. These are expected to fall by a cumulative $8 billion, reflecting continued challenges in traditional linear advertising and pay-TV.
Growth in premium VOD across the region is led by Japan, China, and India, followed by Australia, South Korea, and Indonesia. India is expected to overtake China as the largest SVOD market by subscriptions by 2030, with 358 million subscriptions. ARPU is, however, low and its total premium VOD revenue will remain significantly smaller than China’s and Japan’s.
The report also highlights rising market concentration. The top 15 online video platforms accounted for 58% of total online video revenues in 2025. These are led by global players such as YouTube, TikTok/Douyin, and Netflix, augmented by strong national platforms including JioHotstar and U-NEXT.
Scale is not everything, however. According to Media Partners Asia CEO, Vivek Couto, future winners in the region will be defined less by scale alone and more by their ability to monetize premium experiences, particularly through sports. Local content, new formats such as micro-dramas, and the increasing use of AI to improve efficiency across the value chain are also critical factors in any future successes.
[Deadline]
Disney is planning to add a short-form video feed vertical to the Disney+ app in the United States later in 2026. The feature was announced at Disney’s Tech & Data Showcase at CES, and will deliver a mobile-first experience of short vertical videos similar to TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts.
Content may include original shorts, repurposed social clips, and clips or scenes from longer shows and films. The service aims to create a dynamic, personalized feed that refreshes based on viewer behaviour and boosts daily engagement, especially on smartphones. This builds on a similar vertical video feature called Verts already launched on the ESPN app.
Disney executives have been at pains to emphasize that the format is designed to feel native to user habits rather than just being promotional and a funnel towards other channels. And there is a good case for this approach. YouTube Shorts are now averaging an astonishing over 200 billion daily views. And no, that is not a typo. Anything that can tap into those sorts of figures, even partially, is going to be powerful for broadcasters.