The 2026 Sport Management Symposium convened media executives, convention leaders and content material creators to debate how streaming platforms, promoting fashions and shifting viewers habits are remodeling sports media.
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Live sports could also be the final true mass viewers in media – and the future of how followers watch them is quickly altering. That was the focus of the 2026 Sport Management Symposium, the place award-winning sports author and broadcaster Seth Davis headlined a dialog about the evolving business of live sports.
Held Feb. 25, in Turner Theatre, the annual symposium explored how live sports proceed to regulate throughout broadcast, cable and streaming platforms – and what these adjustments imply for leagues, networks and followers. Davis joined the symposium just about after a blizzard in the Northeast disrupted his broadcast schedule.
Photos of the symposium are available on the school’s Flickr account.
In a wide-ranging dialog with Assistant Professor Bill Squadron, Davis provided college students an unfiltered look at how disruption – from digital media to NIL to legalized sports betting – is remodeling the industry.
Davis mirrored on two main inflection factors that reworked sports media throughout his profession: the rise of the web and the creation of the iPhone and social media. He described how legacy media corporations have been gradual to adapt to digital distribution fashions, essentially altering the economics of journalism. Yet regardless of speedy technological change – and the emergence of synthetic intelligence – Davis emphasised that the fundamentals of storytelling endure.
“There is still an appetite, particularly in the world of sports, for compelling programming and good storytelling,” he mentioned.
He additionally addressed the rising problem of misinformation and AI-generated content material, noting that journalism has by no means been extra essential as audiences navigate an more and more fragmented data ecosystem.
Turning to varsity athletics, Davis described the NIL and switch portal period as a “mass disruption,” formed by long-standing authorized vulnerabilities in the NCAA mannequin. He mentioned how expanded athlete compensation and annual free company have made applications extra transactional, complicating roster stability and culture-building whereas additionally rising athletes’ incomes energy and freedom.
Davis additionally addressed the normalization of legalized sports betting and its influence on media protection. Once referenced subtly throughout broadcasts, betting traces and odds are actually overtly mentioned, creating new income streams whereas elevating new moral and regulatory questions for leagues and media corporations alike.
Throughout the dialog, Davis returned to a central theme for college kids getting ready to enter the industry: adaptability issues, however robust reporting is important. In a media panorama crowded with podcasts and commentary, he urged aspiring professionals to give attention to credibility and experience.
“Become a good reporter, become an expert, develop your sources, develop your traction in the space, and you got a chance to stand out and move forward,” Davis mentioned.
The symposium continued with two knowledgeable panels that examined the industry from league, community and know-how views.
The first panel, “League TV Rights Strategy in a Shifting Media Landscape,” featured Tyler McBride of the Atlantic Coast Conference, sports media marketing consultant John Kosner and Sports Business Journal reporter Austin Karp. The dialogue centered on the delicate steadiness leagues should strike between income and attain as conventional cable subscriptions decline and streaming platforms multiply.
The panelists emphasised that media rights negotiations are not solely about {dollars}. Exposure, demographic attain and manufacturing high quality now play crucial roles in figuring out the proper associate.
Framing live sports as the industry’s final true mass viewers driver, Kosner made the stakes clear: “You can’t be in the advertising business going forward, if you’re not big in sports,” he mentioned.
The group additionally examined the rising affect of know-how corporations in the sports rights market. While legacy networks as soon as relied closely on subscriber bundles, streaming platforms function beneath totally different financial fashions, with promoting and world scale driving long-term technique. Panelists famous that must-have properties – corresponding to the NFL, NBA and main school soccer – proceed to command escalating charges, whereas mid-tier and regional properties face rising strain in an more and more selective market.
The second panel, “Tech Companies, Streaming and Sports Content,” shifted the focus to distribution, content material creation and the altering nature of sports media careers. Media government and journalist Michele Steele, former Amazon Prime Video sports technique government Michael Morris and Elon alumnus Alex Day ’16 shared views from conventional broadcast, streaming and digital-first content material environments.
Panelists explored how streaming platforms and social media have lowered limitations to entry whereas concurrently rising competitors. Steele described the ongoing shift away from linear tv, noting that sports stay one of the few types of content material that constantly drive live audiences. Morris offered perception into how tech corporations consider sports rights as half of broader leisure and promoting methods.
Day, a rising voice in New York sports media, provided a firsthand account of constructing a profession at the intersection of social media, model partnerships and live sports protection, explaining that content material creators are more and more working as impartial media manufacturers.
“There’s not a great barrier to entry right now, so you have to come up with some creative ideas to do it a little bit differently, get people engaged,” Day mentioned, encouraging college students to distinguish themselves in a crowded digital panorama.