Football fans tuning in to the Club World Cup on Sunday may have noticed something new, and potentially game-changing, during the broadcast. As Bayern Munich cruised to victory over Auckland City, the live stream on DAZN featured a split-screen commercial break mid-match, complete with full audio, running right alongside the action.
The ad, which promoted betting company Tipico, played during a substitution break while players regrouped on the sidelines. Unlike the traditional L-frame, where the live game shrinks slightly to allow for silent banner-style ads, this new approach ran a full-sound, picture-in-picture commercial simultaneously with the live feed, allowing advertisers to share airtime with the game itself.
The experimental format was made possible by DAZN’s global rights deal with FIFA for the Club World Cup, which included the freedom to break with traditional ad rules. Typically, broadcast contracts, particularly for major leagues such as the Bundesliga or the Champions League, strictly limit in-game advertising to halftime or pre- and post-match windows. Sound-on, in-match ads have been virtually unheard of in live football coverage until now.
But that may be changing.
The move coincides with DAZN’s recent acquisition of Australian pay-TV giant Foxtel, a significant development that hints at broader ambitions across the local market. The deal gives DAZN a stronger foothold in Australia’s highly competitive sports broadcast space, and this kind of innovation could soon make its way into local codes like the NRL, AFL, or A-League.
With rights holders under pressure to extract more value from live coverage, and viewers increasingly unlikely to stick around for conventional ad breaks, split-screen, sound-on advertising offers an enticing new revenue stream.
Crucially, FIFA’s Club World Cup stream was free to watch with a DAZN account, removing the paywall barrier and potentially opening up the format to a larger and more engaged ad audience.
While it remains to be seen whether traditional leagues will follow FIFA’s lead, the broadcast experiment has set a precedent. And as broadcasters search for ways to boost viewer retention and advertising ROI in an increasingly fragmented market, one thing is clear: the line between live sport and live advertising is starting to blur – and advertisers couldn’t be happier about it.
