Roku’s Caitlin McDonough: Sports Fandom is Growing at the Edges
As sports continues to shift from linear TV to streaming, the viewing experience has also expanded well beyond the live game. Highlights, pregame analysis, podcasts, creator content, and documentary series now command as much fan attention as the match itself. To keep up with those changes, Roku is building the infrastructure to help brands follow that audience across the full journey.
“Fandom has changed for so many fans out there. It’s not just about watching the live game anymore, it’s about the pregame, the highlights, the post-game after,” Caitlin McDonough, director of ad sales at Roku, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet.TV Leadership Summit with Omnicom Media during Advertising Week New York. “With sports rights all over the map across many streaming services, it’s really confusing to find what game to watch.”
Roku’s sports zones address that fragmentation directly, aggregating live games, highlights, and ancillary content into single destinations. Roughly 60% of sports fans report difficulty finding where to stream games on any given night, she said.
What aggregation can do
The Roku Soccer Zone became the number one destination for World Cup viewing this past summer. Nielsen reported that one-third of all viewership came through Roku’s front door.
“That’s not just a one-time spike; that’s for all the games across the full World Cup the whole summer,” McDonough said. “Roku is a habit. We find that on average, folks come to Roku 25 days a month. Brands can continue to follow them and build that brand loyalty throughout their whole streaming journey.”
Brands including Geico across MLB, State Farm across women’s sports, and Burger King across college football are sponsoring league-specific zones, creating what McDonough describes as a value exchange — brands unlock the aggregated hub for viewers while following them across the full streaming journey.
Discovery drives new fan growth
Three quarters of viewers say they would discover a new sport if it were free and easy to find. Roku is pursuing that opportunity through the X Games and the Savannah Bananas on the Roku Channel, alongside a newly announced live sports talk show, Pregame with Matthew Berry.
“When folks sit down in their living room at night and turn on their TV, they want to discover something new,” McDonough said. “That trend is playing out really nicely across the X Games on the Roku Channel, which is a live destination.”
NWSL rights expand emerging sport access
Roku’s National Women’s Soccer League partnership is expanding from eight Sunday night matches in 2026 to 25 in 2027. That gives Omnicom advertiser partners the ability to reach audiences around an emerging league before it becomes a crowded buy, McDonough noted.
“Brands can choose to align with a major league, an emerging sport, or a fan community. From an efficiency side, brands can also make sure they reach incremental audiences across Roku with our targeting capabilities and our growing fan bases,” McDonough said.
As sports continues to shift from linear TV to streaming, the viewing experience has also expanded well beyond the live game. Highlights, pregame analysis, podcasts, creator content, and documentary series now command as much fan attention as the match itself. To keep up with those changes, Roku is building the infrastructure to help brands follow that audience across the full journey.
“Fandom has changed for so many fans out there. It’s not just about watching the live game anymore, it’s about the pregame, the highlights, the post-game after,” Caitlin McDonough, director of ad sales at Roku, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet.TV Leadership Summit with Omnicom Media during Advertising Week New York. “With sports rights all over the map across many streaming services, it’s really confusing to find what game to watch.”
Roku’s sports zones address that fragmentation directly, aggregating live games, highlights, and ancillary content into single destinations. Roughly 60% of sports fans report difficulty finding where to stream games on any given night, she said.
What aggregation can do
The Roku Soccer Zone became the number one destination for World Cup viewing this past summer. Nielsen reported that one-third of all viewership came through Roku’s front door.
“That’s not just a one-time spike; that’s for all the games across the full World Cup the whole summer,” McDonough said. “Roku is a habit. We find that on average, folks come to Roku 25 days a month. Brands can continue to follow them and build that brand loyalty throughout their whole streaming journey.”
Brands including Geico across MLB, State Farm across women’s sports, and Burger King across college football are sponsoring league-specific zones, creating what McDonough describes as a value exchange — brands unlock the aggregated hub for viewers while following them across the full streaming journey.
Discovery drives new fan growth
Three quarters of viewers say they would discover a new sport if it were free and easy to find. Roku is pursuing that opportunity through the X Games and the Savannah Bananas on the Roku Channel, alongside a newly announced live sports talk show, Pregame with Matthew Berry.
“When folks sit down in their living room at night and turn on their TV, they want to discover something new,” McDonough said. “That trend is playing out really nicely across the X Games on the Roku Channel, which is a live destination.”
NWSL rights expand emerging sport access
Roku’s National Women’s Soccer League partnership is expanding from eight Sunday night matches in 2026 to 25 in 2027. That gives Omnicom advertiser partners the ability to reach audiences around an emerging league before it becomes a crowded buy, McDonough noted.
“Brands can choose to align with a major league, an emerging sport, or a fan community. From an efficiency side, brands can also make sure they reach incremental audiences across Roku with our targeting capabilities and our growing fan bases,” McDonough said.
