Global sports media rights reached $65.82 billion in 2026, up 15% from 2025, according to the SportBusiness Global Media Report published Monday. The figure represents the fastest year-over-year growth since the 2018-2019 cycle, when rights values climbed 17% before pandemic-era compression reset the market.
The 2026 jump reflects overlapping renewal cycles in American football, European soccer, and cricket—three properties where streaming platforms now compete directly with legacy broadcasters. The NFL's Sunday Ticket package moved to YouTube TV in 2023 at $2 billion annually, roughly 30% above DirecTV's final deal. Amazon's Thursday Night Football agreement, now in year four, delivered 12.3 million average viewers last season, validating the $1 billion annual spend. Those data points raised floor pricing across all Tier 1 rights negotiations.
The report arrives three months before the Premier League opens its 2025-2028 UK rights auction, where analysts project total domestic value between $7.2 billion and $7.8 billion across linear and streaming windows. That compares to $6.9 billion in the current cycle. Sky Sports, TNT Sports, and Amazon are expected bidders; Apple and Netflix have both sent deal-structuring teams to preliminary meetings, according to two people familiar with the process. Apple's posture matters: the company passed on NFL Sunday Ticket but took Major League Soccer exclusively at $2.5 billion over ten years, a bet that stumbled with 1.7 million Season Pass subscriptions in year one against internal targets near 3 million.
Three factors explain the 2026 acceleration. First, advertising-supported streaming tiers at Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video created new inventory for sports as the lone DVR-proof content category. Second, international rights for American properties climbed as European broadcasters saw NFL and NBA games deliver younger audiences than domestic soccer. DAZN's NFL Game Pass international package now reaches 6.8 million subscribers at roughly $120 annually, double the 2022 base. Third, the Indian subcontinent drove cricket's valuation: Disney Star and Viacom18 together paid $6.2 billion for Indian Premier League rights through 2027, and the ICC's global rights for 2024-2031 reached $3.2 billion, up 120% from the prior cycle.
What matters for teams and leagues is how the money flows. The Premier League's current $6.9 billion UK deal splits roughly 50% to domestic clubs, after central costs. A $7.5 billion renewal would add $18 million per club annually in a twenty-team league, meaningful but not transformative given the top six already carry $450 million-plus wage bills. More significant: streaming platforms write long-term checks with minimal bankruptcy risk compared to regional sports networks, eight of which have filed Chapter 11 since 2021. Diamond Sports, which carried 42% of MLB teams, emerged from bankruptcy in November 2024 at 30% of its pre-filing valuation. Leagues now price streaming partners' balance sheets explicitly into bidding rounds.
Renewals to watch: Formula 1's agreements with Sky Sports (UK) and ESPN (US) expire after the 2025 season, with Sky's deal valued near $240 million annually. Liberty Media has held early conversations with Apple, Amazon, and Netflix about global packages that would pull rights from regional broadcasters. The NBA's new $76 billion domestic deal begins in the 2025-26 season, with Amazon paying $1.8 billion per year for a streaming-exclusive package—the league's first pure digital window. International NBA rights come up for renewal in 2027, currently valued near $1.5 billion annually, where the same streamers are expected to push bids 40%-plus higher.
The report's timing is useful for private equity firms circling sports assets. Silver Lake, CVC, and Arctos have deployed $18 billion into team stakes and league minority investments since 2020, betting that media-rights growth at high-single-digit rates justifies 12x-14x EBITDA entry multiples. A 15% year in rights values supports that thesis if it repeats even at 8%-10% in 2027 and 2028. If it does not—if this is a cyclical spike rather than structural acceleration—those multiples reprice quickly.
The Premier League's UK auction opens in January. Bid letters are due February 14. Results typically leak within a week.
The takeaway
Record **15%** growth signals tech platforms now price sports as subscriber-retention tool, raising floor for all Tier 1 renewals through 2028.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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