Global sports media rights will reach $67.34 billion in 2026, up 9.6% from 2025, according to new market forecasts circulating among broadcast executives and league negotiators this week. The jump marks the sharpest year-over-year gain since 2023, when pandemic-delayed renewals compressed into a single cycle.
The acceleration traces to three factors. The Winter Olympics return in February 2026, anchoring Q1 inventory that typically leans on soccer friendlies and preseason basketball. FIFA's expanded World Cup format adds 16 teams and roughly 24 additional matches to the 2026 tournament, stretching the event across three North American host markets and creating new sponsorship windows. Major North American league renewals—NBA, NHL, and MLS deals negotiated between now and late 2025—are expected to reset floor pricing for live rights, with the NBA alone projected to clear $75 billion across a decade when its current deal expires in 2025.
The 9.6% climb matters because it outpaces inflation and ad-market growth, both running closer to 3-4% in developed markets. That delta suggests rights holders are extracting value from scarcity rather than scale. Streaming fragmentation has made exclusive live windows more defensible: a subscriber who drops a service after the Super Bowl still paid for February. Traditional broadcasters, meanwhile, are bidding to defend prime-time inventory that no longer competes only with rival networks but with TikTok, YouTube, and Kick. The result is a auction dynamic where the floor rises even as the ceiling remains unclear.
North America continues to drive absolute dollars, though growth is shifting. The region accounted for roughly $28 billion in sports rights in 2024, per industry estimates. Europe remains the second-largest market, led by Premier League renewals and UEFA's Champions League restructuring, which added 64 additional matches starting in the 2024-25 season. Asia-Pacific growth is harder to parse—piracy, government-controlled broadcasters, and murky sublicensing deals make reported figures unreliable—but China's suspension of NBA broadcasts in 2019 created a $400 million annual hole that has yet to refill.
What's notable is who's sitting out. Apple, which spent aggressively on MLS and MLB Friday Night Baseball, has not returned to major auctions since mid-2023. Amazon continues to cherry-pick—Thursday Night Football, select Premier League windows—but has avoided the full-season commitments that NBCUniversal and ESPN still chase. That suggests the streaming giants are waiting for rights holders to capitulate on exclusivity, bundling, or both. It hasn't happened yet.
Watch for NBA rights negotiations to close by late summer 2025, setting the comp for NHL and MLS talks. The Winter Olympics rights cycle begins quietly in Q2 2025, with NBCUniversal defending its U.S. position against Amazon and Apple. Sponsor renewals tied to the 2026 World Cup will surface in Q1 2025 earnings calls, particularly for Visa, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, whose activation budgets hinge on final match schedules.
The $67.3 billion figure is a forecast, not a contract. But the phone calls have started.
The takeaway
**$67.3B** in 2026 rights revenue hinges on NBA, NHL, and MLS renewals landing above **$75B** combined; streaming giants still sidelined.
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