If you’ve spent any Sunday this fall watching an NFL broadcast, you may have noticed a shift in the advertising landscape. Alongside the team logos between third-down stops and touchdown drives were cancer screening messages from Novartis, extending beyond national broadcasts into local stadiums across six NFL franchises. Meanwhile, if we look to Major League Baseball, AbbVie has established itself as MLB’s first official pharmaceutical partner, while also bringing its brain health awareness campaigns to the PGA Tour.

These partnerships represent a meaningful change for the pharmaceutical industry that, for decades, has approached sporting events only by purchasing television advertising during commercial breaks. Pharmaceutical companies now want to reach fans beyond traditional TV spots by becoming part of the sporting experience itself, building relationships with leagues, athletes, and audiences in ways that would have been unusual a decade ago.

The appeal of sports to the pharmaceutical industry is backed by numbers. Sporting events accounted for 96 of the 100 most-watched U.S. television broadcasts in 2025. That momentum continued into 2026, with NFL games averaging 18.8 million viewers through the first five weeks of the season, the highest average at this point in a season on record. At a time when audiences are increasingly fragmented across platforms, it’s rare to have such a large captive audience, explaining why brands are looking to establish a presence in professional sports.

As healthcare digital advertising spending continues to grow and the FDA takes a closer look at direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing , companies are reassessing how they invest their advertising dollars.

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