IMG Releases Digital Trend Results 2026

IMG has launched its Digital Trends Report 2026, which explores the technologies and strategic developments expected to shape the sports and media landscape for rightsholders over the next year.

The report identifies the disruptive force of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the central driver of change, while simultaneously stressing the renewed importance of human creativity and local market insight.

Highlighting the expanded scope of the research, IMG’s SVP & managing director, digital, Lewis Wiltshire, said: “This year represents our most global trends report to date, capturing insights from our team of more than 200 digital experts across five continents.”

“But amidst the technological advances, we predict that human creativity and local insight will matter more than ever as we move into 2026,” Wiltshire said.

For the second consecutive year, YouTube was ranked as the priority platform for the global sports industry in the report’s Platform Power Rankings for the rest of the world, followed by Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

The ranking acknowledged YouTube’s ability to drive revenue and deliver superior audience analytics. Notably, Spotify entered the ranking for the first time, reflecting the increasing cultural crossover between sports and entertainment content. In the new dedicated ranking for China, Douyin was identified as the priority platform for audience engagement.

The report sets out several headline predictions for rightsholders:

Strategic Imperatives for 2026

The report challenges the historic focus on quality over quantity, arguing that the new paradigm requires the mantra “More is more is more.”

Sports organisations must now publish consistently high-quality, high-volume material across every platform, using AI to streamline workflows but investing heavily in creative resources to maintain originality.

Furthermore, IMG highlights Amazon’s unique position, which now sits at the intersection of live streaming, data, and integrated commerce. The recommendation is that rightsholders must develop platform-specific strategies to address data governance and IP ownership within the commerce-first environment.

AI’s influence extends to content discovery, creating a new discipline: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). With fans increasingly outsourcing decision-making to AI assistants, sports brands risk becoming invisible unless they produce authoritative, structured content that machines can trust and cite.

The digital era also favours individual voices over institutions (“Main character energy”), forcing organisations to develop on-camera talent and empower players and creators to build parasocial trust.

Finally, while real-time AI translation makes content globally fluent, the report cautions that true global growth depends on human localisation, investing in regional ambassadors and creating locally authentic narratives to resonate with humour and relevance worldwide.

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