Transmit
LIVE · THE FUTURE OF SPORTS ADVERTISING

Don't change the game for ads.
Change ads for the game.

As the 2026 World Cup approaches, the sports industry faces a choice:
keep carving up the game that fans love OR fit advertising inside the flow of play.

0' 45' 90' THE CLOCK NEVER STOPS — THAT'S THE POINT
00:00First Half · The Problem

American sports sold the clock.
Now the bill is due.

As rights fees soared, leagues paid for them with game stoppages for ad breaks.
Now the broadcast is mostly ads and non-action.

Anatomy of a broadcast

Share of total airtime
Premier League~2h broadcast
BALL IN PLAY · 49%
ADS
HALFTIME · STUDIO · OTHER · 42.5%
NBA~2h30m broadcast
PLAY · 32%
ADS · 24%
STOPPAGES · HALFTIME - OTHER · 44%
NFL~3h23m broadcast
9%
ADS · 25%
STOPPAGES · REPLAYS · HALFTIME - OTHER · 66%
Live action
Commercials
Everything else
SOURCES: FIVETHIRTYEIGHT BROADCAST ANALYSIS · WSJ · NIELSEN ESTIMATES
NFL · Average Broadcast (3H 23M)
18 MIN
Live Game Time
Only 9% of an average broadcast is live football. Less than the replays.
50 MIN
Commercial breaks
20+ full commercial breaks per game.
2H 15 MIN
Stoppages, Replays & Fill
The majority of airtime is not the sport you tuned in for.

The Rights-Fee Doom Loop

Rights fees skyrocket More ad inventory needed to make ends meet More stoppages added to the game itself The fan experience erodes Attention and ad value decline AND REPEAT…
45:00Halftime Analysis · The Tipping Point

Soccer is the stress test
the old model fails.

Two unbroken 45-minute halves. No timeouts. Nowhere to hide a pod. The World Cup forces the industry to choose its move.

Premier League · Average Broadcast (2H)
~59 MIN
Ball in Play
Nearly an hour of continuous live action across two unbroken halves.
~10 MIN
Commercial Breaks
Limited to halftime — the only window broadcasters have to sell.
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Built-in Media Breaks
No timeouts. No TV stoppages. The game was never designed around ads.
✕ The Wrong Move

Add more commercial breaks

Proposed 3-minute "hydration breaks" mid-half are TV timeouts wearing a disguise — importing the doom loop into the one sport that escaped it.

ONE HALF · 45' FORCED FORCED THE FLOW — BROKEN
Change the game to fit the ads → fans pay the price.
✓ The Right Move

Improve the product

MLB's pitch clock made the game itself better. Games got 24 minutes shorter — and attendance and viewership went up. Advertisers followed the fans.

MLB AVG GAME LENGTH 2022 3 H 04 M 2023 2 H 40 M −24 MIN BETTER GAME → MORE FANS → MORE VALUE
Strengthen the product → attention returns → ad value grows.

"The World Cup should not become a case study in how advertising changes the game. It should be the example of how advertising evolves to support it."

Advertising Week · March 2026
46:00Second Half · The Solution

AI finds the moments.
The clock never stops.

Inside every "uninterruptible" match are natural pauses with peak attention — injuries, VAR reviews, substitutions, goal celebrations. AI detects them live and weaves context-aware ad experiences into the stream. No whistle required.

ONE MATCH · 90 MINUTES · ZERO ADDED STOPPAGES INJURY VAR REVIEW SUBSTITUTION GOAL CELEBRATION SET PIECE PEAK ATTN 0' 15' 30' 45' 60' 75' 90' AD ✓ AD ✓ AD ✓ AD ✓ AD ✓ IN-STREAM AD EXPERIENCES · WOVEN INTO THE ACTION, NEVER INTERRUPTING

✕ Legacy Model

  • Full-screen interruption — the game disappears
  • Stoppages manufactured to create ad pods
  • One ad for every viewer, regardless of context
  • Attention erodes — the doom loop spins

✓ AI-Native Model

  • In-stream formats — the game stays on screen
  • Natural pauses detected live — zero added stoppages
  • Context-matched creative, unique per impression
  • New supply created — the experience protected
90:00The Transmit Triad

Right Moment

AI reads the live stream and detects natural pauses with peak viewer attention.

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Right Creative

Context-matched and dynamically assembled against what's happening on the pitch.

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Right Viewer

Personalized per impression, per session — premium by nature, not negotiation.