It seems that international sports competitions have always tended to attract a great amount of interest on the part of the media and have consistently been popular with sports fans the world over.

consistently 是副词，由形容词 consistent（一贯的、一致的）加上副词后缀 -ly 构成。consistent 来自动词 consist（由...组成），引申为"始终如一的"。 consistently 在这里表示"持续不断地、一贯地"，强调国际体育赛事长期以来都保持着受欢迎的状态。