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BLOG — April 07, 2025
By Scott Robson
We estimate that US TV and streaming sports media rights payments will total $29.25 billion in 2025 — over half the global total. This has risen from an estimated $14.64 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow to over $37 billion by 2030 as new deals are forged.
As contracts between RSNs and major professional sports teams expire, coupled with an increase in financial challenges, some teams are shifting away from reliance on RSNs. They are now seeking partnerships with local TV stations and developing their own DTC options.
Based on Kagan data, as of March 27, there are 96 separate local live game rights deals between MLB, NBA, NHL and WNBA teams and local TV stations including small 1-10 game packages up to 40, 60, 70 or 80-plus full-season packages such as the Dallas Mavericks, Florida Panthers, Las Vegas Aces and Golden Knights, New Orleans Pelicans, Phoenix Suns, Seattle Kraken and Utah Jazz.
Billions of dollars are spent every year for sports media rights, and the cost to air live sports has risen dramatically while audiences have grown ever-fragmented across different video platforms. As sports fan consumption patterns change, media rights deals and network economic models are adapting to the digital age. At the same time, the rising cost of sports media rights deals drive the growth of professional sports team valuations, boost player salaries and spark technological innovations.
The timing of major events significantly influences overall global spend on media rights. We estimate $57.2 billion will be spent in 2025, lower than 2024, which surpassed $60 billion. We expect the IOC to post $3.5 billion of broadcasting fee income for Paris 2024 when it publishes its annual report later this year, meanwhile, the UEFA Euro 2024 soccer tournament pulled in at least $1.5 billion. This means $5 billion exits the media rights ecosystem for 2025. Even though a more valuable NBA deal starts in 2025, most of the other highly scaled deals are mid-contract.
We estimate that US TV and streaming sports media rights payments will total $29.25 billion in 2025 — over half the global total. This has risen from an estimated $14.64 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow to over $37 billion by 2030 as new deals are forged. Our forecast shows even years rising faster than odd years due to spending on the Summer and Winter Olympics. Year 2021 is an outlier, as the 2020 Summer Olympics were held in 2021. The timing of the FIFA World Cup also affects annual fluctuations.
In the US, major sports rights deals for the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR and college sports were extended in the last couple of years with hefty increases over the previous contracts. There are some major properties coming up for renewal, including the UFC, Formula 1, the Pac-12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference, and the package for the MLB that is currently held by Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN (US) and includes around 30 regular season games and a wild card playoff series.
After losing out on the NBA rights, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. was an active bidder for sports rights over the past year. The company scooped up the rights to the Tennis French Open, Big East College Basketball, a midseason NASCAR slate and the new women's basketball league "Unrivaled." The French Open was not the only tennis grand slam to be renewed, as ESPN agreed to a 12-year deal for the exclusive US rights to the US Open tennis Grand Slam in a contract that runs 2026–2037 and is worth around $170 million per year. These renewals all came at significant increases over the previous deals.
Pure-play sports streamer DAZN Group Ltd. has boasted its global expansion plans with the acquisition of Foxtel Management Pty Ltd. in Australia. It inherits its dominant control of premium sports rights in the market and strengthens its global base to support future rights negotiations. Its most recent financial reports showed a $3.1 billion commitment to sports rights in 2023 across its global markets. This means DAZN joins Comcast Corp.'s Sky Ltd., Telefónica SA, Canal+ Group and Warner Bros. Discovery as the top five sports rights spenders in Europe, ahead of Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. with their spending skewed to US or global rights.
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