Plenty of people discuss sports on social media, but soon you could be streaming them live on these platforms, too. Alongside Verizon and Amazon, Facebook has announced an interest in buying the TV rights for Thursday Night Football in its first public bid to broadcast a live event.

The average smartphone owner reaches for their device over 150 times a day, so it’s no surprise that people can’t switch off when watching sport in stadiums or at home. With a breadth of stats and analysis available at the touch of a button, how has technology changed the fan experience?

With on-demand services thriving and viewer numbers falling, is the golden age of TV over? Canvas8 spoke with Alan Wolk, author ofOver the top: How the internet is slowly (but surely) changing the television industry, about how TV will adapt and whether the traditional ad model will survive.

Rather than dramatically breaking into the mainstream, virtual reality has slowly acquiesced into the collective consciousness. The arena of sport, however, provides a unique opportunity for the tech, potentially transforming these perennial pastimes for fans, players and sponsors alike.

BT is going to make the Champions League and Europa League finals available to stream for free on YouTube. It will be the first time either final has been officially broadcast on the video platform, and could mark a major step in moving sport away from traditional media channels.

Sport has a long and fruitful broadcast history. And digitisation means the modern fan can watch games anywhere, anytime; two-thirds of ESPN’s audience view on their mobile. With Twitter now securing NFL streaming rights for Thursdays, the sport has never been more accessible.

We're as frugal with our time as we are with our money. So it's no surprise that we're neither prepared to pay for the cinema nor wait for films to leave the box office; piracy is rife. Popcorn Time – ‘the Netflix of piracy’ – is making illegal downloads feel more normal and less criminal than ever.

From televised musical spectaculars to streams of explosions on Periscope, live news and entertainment is available in more varied and accessible forms than ever. But in a multi-channel, multiplatform universe, how do you go about finding an audience for what’s happening right now?