IMG’s Digital Trends Report 2025: YouTube crowned priority platform and mobiles dominate viewers’ attention
The distinction between ‘first’ and ‘second’ screens will be abandoned in 2025 as viewers’ phones dominate their attention.
That is one of the findings of IMG’s Digital Trends Report 2025, which also crowned YouTube as the priority platform for the sports industry due to its ability to reach, engage and monetise audiences, while AI was heralded as an enabler of increased personalisation for viewers.
The annual report from IMG – now in its seventh year – explores the technologies and developments that will shape the sports media landscape for rights holders over the next 12 months. It features insights and analysis from IMG’s global team of digital experts, with this year’s predictions also exploring how D2C strategies are pivoting from non-premium content to gamification and that 2025 will be the true age of wearables.
IMG senior vice president and managing director of digital Lewis Wiltshire spoke with SVG Europe about the suggestion that there is no ‘first’ and ‘second screen’. He said: “There is a notion that has existed for a while but never really been challenged which is now ripe for unpicking and being challenged, and that is the idea that the big screen in the corner of the room is king and the ‘first’ screen and that our phones are the second screen.
“We think we are in a new era of digital and that sports rights holders need to challenge themselves to think differently from the classic Facebook, Twitter, Instagram a bit of CRM and an app”
“Is that still true? We think it’s not, and while the big screen in a room continues to play an incredibly powerful role…if you look at the data, you might spend more hours on the smaller screen than looking at the big screen. We need to consider what first and second screen even means now.”
For the sports industry, that means it’s necessary to “win at both screens at once,” said Wiltshire.
“One of the most powerful implications of this particular trend is to make the sports industry reconsider that it has any kind of divine right to be on either of those screens let alone both at the same time.”
The IMG report also claims that while “phones still reign, 2025 starts the true age of wearables”, pointing to the work of organisations like Snap, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple which are increasing their investment in tech that attempts to integrate seamlessly into our lives and onto our bodies.
“We’re moving into an era of fragmented attention,” said Wiltshire. “If you think about the sheer number of connected devices that we have about us at any given moment, we think that wearables will not necessarily take over from the phone in terms of the amount of attention we give it, but watches and maybe glasses will certainly eat into the phone’s monopoly over our attention.”
Priority platform
This year’s edition of the Digital Trends Report 2025 crowned YouTube as the priority platform for the sports industry, with IMG citing its ability to reach, engage and monetise audiences as the reasons for its number one position (see below). YouTube is followed by Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. The rankings place Reddit as the year’s biggest riser, climbing four places to sixth, as fans are increasingly drawn towards community-focused platforms, IMG said.
Wiltshire added: “YouTube jumped from 3 to 1 and part of the reason for that is YouTube’s monetisation model, and we also think YouTube will have to do more around monetisation for sports rights holders and content owners as it relates to YouTube Shorts.”
In IMG’s ranking, YouTube has moved from number two in 2023 to number one this year, while Instagram has moved up one place to number two, and TikTok has gone from number one to number three.
“We think 2025 will be the year in which there is greater monetisation of shortform and vertical content,” added Wiltshire. “That is the big thing that is missing from Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. But YouTube’s monetisation of longer form content is one of the reasons it is positioned at number one.”
IMG’s 2025 Platform Power Rankings:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- X/Twitter
- Discord
- Snap
- Threads
- Twitch
One of the biggest movers is Reddit, which has moved from tenth position last year to sixth this year. The reason for this, says Wiltshire, is because of the growing importance of community.
“We thought WhatsApp might rise from number five last year, but it’s had a year where it hasn’t really iterated as much as we’d hoped on the product WhatsApp Channels. We expected WhatsApp to build on Channels in a way we hadn’t seen.
“Reddit’s move speaks to the importance of community and the importance of brands authentically interacting with communities which Reddit is a really important platform for.”
Summing up, Wiltshire said his hope is that the sports industry’s takeaway from IMG’s Digital Trends Report 2025 is to challenge itself and think differently. He said: “It feels like we are in a new era of the internet, this third era. The phrase ‘Web3’ conjures images of NFTs and blockchain, we think it is much broader than that. We think we are in a new era of digital and that sports rights holders need to challenge themselves to think differently from the classic Facebook, Twitter, Instagram a bit of CRM and an app. That was fine ten or maybe five years ago but it won’t cut it now in an era of AI, VR, mixed reality and wearables and more besides.
“We also feel sports organisations need to try to find ways to afford the time to consider this new era of the internet and what it might mean. One of the problems is the relentlessness of the sports calendar which means seldom do they have the opportunity to step back and consider their mix of platforms and whether they are underinvesting.”
Headline predictions from the IMG Digital Trends Report 2025:
- There is no ‘first’ and ‘second’ screen: By any measure, sports are more popular now than ever. Networks and streaming services are paying increasing fees for access to the world’s best events, and nearly 24 million people in the UK watched England’s Euro 2024 final defeat. Yet, while sports dominates the big screen, our phones dominate our attention. 2025 will see sports abandon the notion of ‘first screen’ and ‘second screen’ and put more emphasis into winning the battle for both screens – at the same time.
- Phones still reign, but 2025 starts the true age of wearables: Snap, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple are increasing their investment in tech that attempts to integrate seamlessly into our lives and onto our bodies. Millions of us have bought and used these devices, but they have not yet displaced the smartphone. 2025 will be the year when wearable tech finally starts to compete with the phone for our attention. With the glance of an eye, users could soon find themselves connected to music, their fitness stats, or the internet. Screentime may reduce on your smartphone, but your digital connection could now become permanent. Wearables are for real, and sports need to prepare for a world of potentially infinite user data and distraction.
- AI: Personalisation not personalities: It’s been two years since generative artificial intelligence (AI) came to mainstream prominence with the launch of ChatGPT. In 2024, we saw a mixture of high-profile successes regarding fan-facing generative AI activations, including Peacock’s coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympics, as well as some expensive failed experiments across various industries. Now, we are seeing what fans and viewers want from AI. Meta’s attempt to replicate one-to-one fan interactions at scale through AI celebrity chatbots demonstrated there is minimal appetite to engage with artificially created characters or celebrity interactions. Fans want personalisation, not personalities.
- People want answers not results: 2025 marks the abrupt end to the traditional method of searching for topics and visiting websites with relevant editorial content. The new world order will see AI summarise results in just a few seconds. In a world of précis, your website needs to become the ultimate source of truth, not just a generator of unclicked results in a search query.
- Number disruption: One fundamental way the internet has changed the world is to make abundance normal. A brand can reach scale – of audience, video views, app downloads – for low marginal cost, and an end user can access all the media in existence. Abundance means sports clubs and leagues can cite big numbers around their content or their fan services, as fan passion generates impressive impressions, views and engagements. In this context, we must question the value and real-world meaning of such big numbers and work to pair them with metrics which represent true community engagement.
- D2C pivots from non-premium content to utility and gamification: To date, many sports organisations have tried to stand up a D2C value proposition that is underpinned by their least valuable content as they license their premium rights to third parties. In 2025 we will see a marked shift in the way sports address the D2C opportunity. Instead of launching standalone offerings where the value proposition is non-premium content, they will pivot towards creating new value propositions based on participation, gamification and rewards.
- Sports monetises short-form and non-live content: In recent years, sports organisations have seen outsized performance growth from their vertical video and short-form content output. Leagues, teams and athletes have been reporting continued follower and consumption growth from the emergence of platforms like TikTok and formats like YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram’s Reels. However, they haven’t yet seen a significant commercial return. That will change in 2025. As with other media in the past, revenue models have lagged consumer attention but next year, sports will start to monetise their short-form and non-live rights in a meaningful way.