From live sports and awards shows to breaking news, linear TV is increasingly delivered over digital infrastructure. Today’s audiences are watching content wherever and whenever it’s most convenient. For audiences, the distinction between “linear” and “digital” no longer exists, and to reach them, advertisers and media sellers need ad operations systems that are just as converged as the content they support.

Linear Is Streaming – and Vice Versa

Live TV events like awards shows and pro sports send a clear signal of media transformation. For live TV programming, it’s no longer linear broadcast or streaming. It isn’t even linear broadcast and streaming. Linear is streaming because that’s how audiences are watching. And as high-revenue programming like sports and awards shows go, other content types are soon to follow.

Major awards shows that have made the shift to streaming include:

• The Tony Awards have been streaming live and on-demand on Paramount+ since 2021, in addition to their live CBS broadcast. 
• The Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards was the first major awards show to move exclusively to a streaming service, moving from CBS to Amazon Prime Video in 2022.
• The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards moved to Netflix in 2023 as part of a multi-year deal. 
• The Grammys have simulcast on CBS and Paramount+ since 2023, but late last year announced a new 10-year global deal to be exclusively simulcast on ABC, Hulu, and Disney+ beginning in 2027.
• The Oscars streamed live on Hulu for the first time in 2025, simulcast with the live broadcast on ABC. 

But an even stronger indicator of the shift to streaming is how professional sports organizations, those with some of the most valuable media rights, are redefining distribution.

The NBA and NFL Media Rights: True Cross-Platform Deals

The NBA’s landmark $76 billion, 11-year media rights deal is set to begin this year. Spanning broadcast and streaming for both regular and post-season games, with rights spread across ABC/ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video, the deal reflects a world where digital and linear are no longer separate. It also demonstrates recognition that audiences are watching everywhere, and advertisers need to follow them.

The NFL reached similar conclusions with its own 11-season, $110 billion deal with CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, and Amazon, signed in 2021. Like the NBA’s deal, the agreement includes distribution across both traditional broadcasters and digital platforms, streaming-only broadcasts like Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, and simulcasts on services like Peacock, Paramount+, and ESPN+. Perhaps most significantly, the deal means that as of the 2025 season, the number of NFL games exclusively broadcast via traditional, over-the-air or cable TV will be zero.

Additionally, as recently as August 2025, the NFL struck a deal giving ESPN full ownership of the NFL Network and the NFL Red Zone channel in exchange for a 10% equity stake in Disney-owned ESPN. ESPN will also license three additional NFL games per season. The deal, worth an estimated $3 billion, came just two weeks before ESPN was set to launch its new streaming service.

Clearly, for the NBA and the NFL, digital is no longer an add-on or an afterthought.

And it’s more than just basketball and football. The New York Times recently reported that Netflix has secured the US rights to FIFA’s Women’s World Cup for 2027. And the streamer’s live boxing match last year between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson drew 65 million US viewers, making it the country’s second most-watched sporting event of 2024, behind only the Super Bowl.

What Does This Mean for Ad Operations?

If your systems and teams are still siloed between “linear” and “digital,” you’re leaving money on the table. Advertisers expect cross-platform audience targeting, unified campaign measurement, and the ability to buy based on GRPs, impressions, or outcomes, all from a single source of truth.

WideOrbit is uniquely positioned to help media organizations navigate this level of convergence. Working in close collaboration with clients, we’re building solutions that align with both existing and new workflows and business processes, and that address the challenges of managing linear and digital and cross-platform ad sales and revenue management. With unified systems, media companies can eliminate the silos and disjointed operations that lead to inefficiencies, missed revenue, and a poor experience for buyers.

Pro sports and awards shows do more than predict future industry transformation. They demonstrate that digital-first and converged distribution are today’s reality, meaning media organizations need systems to support that convergence at scale. And they need those systems today, not “someday”.

WO Fusion: Built for a Converged World

WO Fusion is specifically designed for the converged world that’s already here. Your ad sales, operations, and finance teams can finally work together, using the same data and speaking the same language, whether they’re selling broadcast spots, digital impressions, or both, all within a single media plan.

WO Fusion brings linear and digital ad operations together into a single, streamlined platform. It enables media companies to:

• Consolidate linear and digital inventory into unified media plans.
• Plan and deliver cross-platform campaigns with flexibility and control.
• Leverage a portfolio of WideOrbit and third-party integrations to expand workflows.
• Streamline campaign planning, sales, and trafficking processes with AI-powered automation.
• Align teams around shared data for forecasting, planning, and yield optimization.

Linear TV isn’t disappearing, it’s just being delivered in new ways. WO Fusion helps media companies navigate this shift, with tools built for the real-world challenges of selling and delivering converged campaigns. WO Fusion helps you deliver what advertisers want, on the platforms audiences are using.

Contact us to learn how WO Fusion can help you increase revenue with streamlined cross-platform campaign planning and execution.