Crossing the divide: How digital fragmentation is changing sports

Modern sports viewing rarely has a fan's undivided attention — most of us are watching the game while simultaneously scrolling social media on a second or third screen. That's digital fragmentation, and with 4.8 billion people active on social media and the average person now juggling 3.6 devices, it's reshaping how fans consume sport.

New channels, new opportunities

Rather than fighting this shift, leagues are leaning into it: MLS partnered with Apple TV for its Season Pass, Six Nations Rugby built a TikTok hub around the tournament, and the NBA and NFL run their own streaming platforms in League Pass and Game Pass. Apple's Vision Pro even promises split-screen, multi-sport viewing as the next step in this direction.

A generational divide

Older fans remain largely locked onto the primary screen and are best reached through enhanced team apps; Gen Z fans are fully second-screen, favouring TikTok and fast, easily shareable content; Millennials sit in between, consuming heavy video content on Twitter and Instagram. Building a genuine picture of which segment each fan belongs to — and tailoring content accordingly — is what separates organisations that turn fragmentation into an opportunity from those still fighting to keep eyes on a single screen.

Doing that well depends on good data and a CRM capable of turning fragmented viewing habits into a coherent, actionable picture of each fan.