DALLAS—Annual sports OTT subscription revenue in the United States was $13.1 billion in 2022 and will almost double to approximately $22.6 billion in 2027, a 73% increase over the next five years. 

That was the conclusion of Park’s Associates “OTT & Sports: Services and Strategies for Growth,” report, which examines key trends in sports content and provides an overview of the pay-TV sports media landscape, OTT sports services, direct-to-consumer trends, and the sports fan viewing experience.

The report notes traditional pay TV is losing its stronghold on sports media rights. Streaming providers, in search of original and exclusive content, are looking to live sports to attract and maintain their user bases. For example, Amazon now has the NFL's Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, and Apple recently announced a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer (MLS). 

According to Parks, the $13.1 billion does not include any sports-specific services offered for free or included in the service such as Amazon Prime or Apple TV. "The 2022 subscription revenue number only includes those services that are dedicated OTT sports services or are sports add-on tiers/packages,“ said Eric Sorensen, Sr. Contributing Analyst for Parks Associates.

Sport media rights holders want to get games in front of as many eyes as possible, according to Jennifer Kent, VP, Research, Parks Associates.

"The audience reach of online-only and streaming services is enormous. To compete with the digital titans, media conglomerates with conventional and online services are shifting finances and resources to launch, improve, and develop streaming services targeted at sports fans."

The report notes that as sports fans move online and away from traditional pay TV, this drives yet another sector of the pay-TV demographic to cut the cord. According to the research, there are more than 50 specific sports OTT services in the US, creating market fragmentation and competition to attract sports fans.

"There has always been intense competition for sports-related content, but the disaggregation of content delivery with the growth of streaming services is pouring fuel on the fire," Kent said.

This article has been updated. 

MIDDLESEX, England—The rise of OTT is not slowing down according to a new report from Digital TV Research, which projects the global online TV episodes and movie revenues to more than double from its 2018 numbers of $68 billion to $159 billion in 2024. That growth is expected to start in earnest in 2019, with $17 billion added to the total.

Digital TV Research gathered info from 138 countries for this report. Of those countries, the top five will contribute 68% of all global revenues by 2024, down from the 71% the top five countries provided in 2018. This signifies that more countries are boosting their OTT revenue, with 18 expected to exceed $1 billion in 2024—up from 10 in 2018.

Of all the countries, the U.S. is projected to remain at the top, with its global revenues coming just under 40%. In the five years covered in Digital TV Research’s report, the U.S. is forecasted to add nearly $34 billion dollars, bringing its total to $61 billion.

China is one of the top growers, however, with the country expected to add $15 billion over the same time frame, bringing its total to $27 billion. Combined, the U.S. and China would control 56% of the global total by 2024.

Additional findings included the growth of AVOD services. With a number of high-profile AVOD services expected to start in the near future, AVOD revenues will increase $34 billion between 2018 and 2024.

The full report can be viewed on Digital TV Research’s website.