MILWAUKEE—The Milwaukee Bucks will return to a full-season over-the-air television for the first time in 31 years, with 2026-27 preseason and regular season games airing on MY24 and statewide affiliates as part of a deal with the Rincon Broadcasting Group.

“We’re excited to bring the Bucks back to MY24,” Rincon Broadcasting Group CEO Kern Dant said. “This is more than a television partnership. It’s the return of a Milwaukee tradition. Welcome home, Bucks fans.”

MY24 first served as the over-the-air broadcast home of the Bucks from 1988-94.

With the new deal, viewers in the Milwaukee area will be able to watch Bucks games over-the-air on MY24 and on most major cable systems and YouTube TV during the 2026- 27 season.

The over-the-air broadcasts will tip off on MY24 during Bucks games at the 2026 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, beginning on Sunday, July 12, against the San Antonio Spurs at 8 p.m. CT. The Bucks will then play the Phoenix Suns on Monday, July 13, at 9 p.m. CT and the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday, July 15, at 6:30 p.m. CT.

Good Karma Brands will work with the Bucks to lead media and advertising sales and develop a full state-wide network of affiliates, helping connect advertisers with one of the NBA's most passionate fan bases through the new statewide video broadcast network. The Bucks will also develop a direct-to-consumer streaming service to further expand access to Bucks games, with additional details to be announced at a later date.

“This season marks an exciting return to our roots as we bring Bucks basketball back to full-season over-the-air television for the first time in more than three decades,” said Bucks and Fiserv Forum president Josh Glessing. “We’re grateful to our partners at Rincon Broadcasting Group for helping us make Bucks games more accessible to our fans throughout Wisconsin.”

LONDON—The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is set to generate the highest sponsorship revenue in the competition’s history, with combined media rights and sponsorship revenues expected to exceed $6 billion, per research firm Ampere Analysis.

The expanded 48-team tournament, to be held June 11 to July 19 across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, has created significant opportunities for brand promotion, Ampere said. The United Kingdom-based research estimates that it will generate at least $3.8 billion in rights fee revenues and $2.4 billion in sponsorship revenues.

Much of that commercial growth has been driven by the U.S. role as a host nation, Ampere said, with the value of stateside media rights up 94% from the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar. U.S.-based brands now account for more than half of World Cup sponsorship revenue, Ampere said.

“This edition of the FIFA Men’s World Cup is attracting record levels of sponsorship investment due to the increase in participating teams and the expanded number of matches,“ Chloe Ng-Triquet, analyst, sponsorship at Ampere, said. “Hailed as the ’biggest’ Men’s World Cup ever, brands have identified every opportunity to capitalise on innovative activations. With the additional hydration breaks during each game’s quarter, brands have more space to advertise. Despite no major sponsors for the events headquartered in Canada or Mexico, the U.S. houses some of the biggest brands globally, helping drive the sponsorship revenue to an all-time high.”

Ampere currently estimates media rights revenues for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup at $3.8 billion, up 22% from the 2022 tournament, with some deals still to be agreed for markets in Asia. Traditional linear broadcasters are still the dominant rightsholders, Ampere said, but streaming services are investing more in the competition. DAZN, for instance, will stream the World Cup in three major markets, Japan, Italy and Spain.

Ampere expects sponsorship revenues to reach at least $2.4 billion, a 37% increase from Qatar 2022. Spending is being driven by new sponsors such as DoorDash, Bank of America and ADI Predict Street, as well as historic sponsors like Adidas, Coca-Cola, and Visa. U.S.-based brands account for 52% of sponsorship revenue, up from 36% in 2022. No companies based in Canada or Mexico have signed on as sponsors yet.

“While we estimate that FIFA is currently under its target for media rights revenue for this Men’s World Cup, deals have yet to be confirmed for some markets in Asia,” Ampere Senior Analyst, Sports Media Rights Danni Moore said. “However, even without those agreements in place, the 2026 edition of the tournament is generating the highest media rights values FIFA has achieved to date as a result of growth across several markets. As the country with the highest investment in sports rights globally, the growth in the US market, driven by its role as one of the host nations, has had a considerable impact on the overall value of the 2026 event.”

The National Association of Broadcasters is praising the FCC and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for opening an investigation into how professional sports rights are currently negotiated with an eye towards leveling the playing field for broadcasters.

In February, FCC Chairman Brandon Carr announced that the FCC’s Media Bureau had issued a Public Notice seeking public comment about the current state of sports TV and in particular, how the increasingly fragmented viewing landscape is impacting how viewers watch sports on TV. Deadline for public comments is March 27.

"Given the nexus between sports programming and the local media marketplace—as well as the FCC’s ongoing work to support local news and reporting—we believe it is important for us to evaluate the sports media landscape and understand how changes have impacted consumers and broadcasters," the bureau stated in its notice.

In December, NAB launched a campaign “Keep the Game On” to advocate for keeping live professional sports available on free TV and to increase public awareness of how outdated ownership rules impact broadcasters' competitiveness in negotiating with Big Tech over sports rights.

"Games that once aired on local broadcast stations are increasingly gobbled up by Big Tech platforms, hidden behind paywalls that come with steep monthly bills,” said NAB President Curtis LeGeyt. “That is not progress, it is a problem. Broadcasters need the ability to compete and keep sports accessible to everyone."

This week, the association highlighted this recent tweet from Sen. Lee:

“We’re grateful for Chairman Carr and Sen. Lee providing leadership on this important topic as consumers are increasingly frustrated by the scattering of live sports across multiple streaming platforms,” the NAB wrote in a blog. “Fans want to easily watch their hometown teams and marquee national events on broadcast television, free and accessible to all. As the biggest games in football and basketball have shown, broadcast television continues to bring communities together around the moments that matter most.”

“But outdated government ownership rules make it harder for broadcasters to compete for sports rights and the advertising revenue that supports them,” they added. “In today’s fragmented media marketplace, broadcasters must compete against global streaming companies and Big Tech platforms that face none of the same regulatory restrictions.”

The NAB’s web page for ownership rules is here and its "Keep the Game On" web page is here.

WASHINGTON—As more sports shift from broadcast and cable to streaming and a growing number of consumers are complaining about the cost and complexity of following their favorite teams, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has announced that it is seeking public comments on how the changing broadcast and sports rights landscape is impacting consumers.

“For decades, Americans have enjoyed turning on their television sets and quickly finding the games they wanted to watch for free on an over-the-air broadcast,” the Media Bureau noted in a Public Notice seeking comments on the issue. “Yet watching your favorite sports team play is not as easy these days. Many games are still available for free over broadcast TV, but there has been a surge in recent years of games going behind the paywalls of various streaming services. While this can increase the number of games and sports available to fans, many consumers today find it more difficult to find the events they want to watch and are now paying to sign up for one or more video distribution platforms that consumers can find difficult to navigate.”

“It is against this backdrop that the Media Bureau issues this Public Notice,” the Media Bureau noted. “We would like for commenters to address the current and emerging trends in the distribution of live sports programming. How does the present marketplace benefit or harm consumers? How does the recent trends towards fragmentation facilitate or inhibit the ability of local broadcast television stations to meet their public interest obligations, including their production of local news and reporting? In what ways is the marketplace continuing to evolve and how will future changes impact consumer access to free over-the-air news and information, including public safety information?”

For the comments, the Media Bureau has opened MB Docket No. 26-45 and set a deadline for comments of March 27, 2026, with reply comments due on April 13, 2026.

The Public Notice did not, however, address or describe specific actions, such as new rules, that the agency might take in response to its inquiries.

In response to the Public Notice, NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said that the "NAB thanks Chairman Carr for his leadership in examining the rapid changes in the sports broadcasting marketplace and what they mean for American viewers and local communities. Consumer access to premier games through free, over-the-air television has long been a cornerstone of the American sports fan experience. As distribution becomes more fragmented across streaming services and paywalls, fans face higher costs and greater confusion just to follow the teams they care about. Local broadcasters provide the widest reach for live events, bringing fans together to celebrate their favorite teams."

LeGeyt also stressed that "as the Commission evaluates these marketplace trends, it is important to ensure that local stations have a fair opportunity to compete for premium sports rights. That includes modernizing outdated ownership restrictions that limit broadcasters’ ability to achieve the scale necessary to compete in today’s media marketplace. We look forward to participating in this proceeding and providing real-world insight into how disruption in the media landscape is affecting viewers and local stations.”

In the Public Notice, the Media Bureau indicated that a major focus of its inquiries would be on the impact the changing sports rights business has on local broadcasters.

"Given the nexus between sports programming and the local media marketplace—as well as the FCC’s ongoing work to support local news and reporting—we believe it is important for us to evaluate the sports media landscape and understand how changes have impacted consumers and broadcasters," it noted.

The Public Notice seeking comments also described extensive changes in the sports media rights landscape that the inquiry seeks to address.

“Live sports are no longer on broadcast TV alone,” the Media Bureau explained. “Today, the NFL has media rights agreements with Disney (ESPN/ABC), Paramount (CBS/Paramount+), Fox Corporation (Fox/Fox One), NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock), NFL Network, Amazon (Amazon Prime Video), Google (YouTube), and Netflix. Over the life of these agreements the NFL stands to bring in over $100 billion in sports rights fees. The other major professional sports leagues, the NHL, MLB, and NBA, have also agreed to media rights contracts with a range of national video program distributors that amount to billions of dollars.”

“Over the last two decades college athletic conferences have also entered into multi-billion dollar media rights agreements,” the Public Notice continued. “Both professional sports leagues and college athletic conferences have also launched their own networks and direct-to-consumer streaming services. As a result, today, NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL games can be found on broadcast, cable, and streaming services. Further, revenue derived from sport rights fees (national and local) is now a vital revenue source in sports, and in some cases is replacing gate receipts and other forms of income as the largest source of revenue.”

This ongoing fragmentation of rights can create problems for consumers, the Public Notice added.

“While streamers have helped expand access to professional and collegiate sports, they also appear to have contributed to the fragmentation of the sports media marketplace,” the Media Bureau reported. “In 2025, NFL games aired on 10 different services, which, according to some estimates, could cost a consumer over $1,500 to watch all games.”

The full Public Notice and the list of questions that the FCC plans to explore are available here.

In a post on X, FCC Chair Brendan Carr described the inquiry as follows:

LONDON—Although it’s safe to say that live professional sports could not exist in its current state without television, a new report from Ampere Analysis raises questions about whether the TV industry can continue to afford skyrocketing sports rights in the U.S.

According to a new report from the research firm, spending on U.S. sports rights has surged 122% over the past decade, rising from $13.8bn in 2015 to $30.5bn in 2025. Over the same period, total TV industry revenues increased by just 24%, from $172 billion to $213 billion, meaning investment in rights has grown five times faster than the broader market.

Whereas a decade ago, broadcasters spent 8% of their revenue on sports rights, that figure has now jumped to 14% of total TV revenue, underlining the premium value of live sport as broadcasters battle for subscribers and viewer loyalty in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, Ampere said.

The sports picture in Europe is a bit more optimistic for broadcasters. In the U.K., sports rights spend has grown at twice the rate of TV revenues since 2015, and 1.6 times as fast in Spain. But in France and Germany, the growth of rights has largely stalled.

Between 2019 and 2025, TV revenue growth outpaced sports rights spend across all of Europe’s “big five” markets. The U.S. trend was the reverse, with rights spend rising at four times the rate of TV market growth. Ampere says this could be a result of European broadcasters taking a more cautious stance, reflecting declining viewership and ongoing challenges in driving subscriber revenue growth.

“As TV markets slow, sports rights inflation continues; the huge hikes in NFL and NBA deals demonstrate how live sports continue to deliver unique value as a driver of audience reach and retention,’ says Daniel Harraghy, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis. "By contrast, the more restrained approach in Europe reflects the tough economics of rights investment. Market differences are being driven by several factors, including longer-term rights contracts in the US, business models that place greater emphasis on affiliate fees and advertising rather than subscriptions, and a more competitive rights market.”

The NFL is predicted to become the world' s most valuable sport in terms of media rights revenue by 2030 according to a new report from Rethink TV, which estimates that global media rights revenue (MRR) for the Top 17 sports leagues will grow to $96.3 billion by 2035, more than four times its 2015 total.

Despite surging valuations, the sports media market is at a critical crossroad, the researcher said. The Pay TV rights holders that once underpinned sports broadcasting are rapidly eroding, but the transition to Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) streaming remains fraught with technological and financial hurdles. OTT players like Amazon and Netflix have driven record-breaking deals, yet even DAZN, the most aggressive pureplay sports streamer, is still struggling to achieve profitability.

By 2030, the market will hit $73 billion, with American Football set to overtake the combined MRR of the world’s top nine Soccer leagues for the first time in history. These two sports, along with Baseball, will further cement their lead as the three most valuable sports in terms of MRR, Rethink said.

The shift to D2C streaming remains constrained by infrastructure limitations and escalating content costs. While sports leagues are eager to take control of their distribution, few are ready to match the reliability and scale of legacy broadcast networks. Multicast ABR and Open Caching solutions remain in early stages, delaying full-scale adoption of D2C platforms from rights owners.

OTT giants like Amazon and Netflix continue to sign multi-billion-dollar deals, but sustainability is questionable as ad-based models fail to offset soaring rights costs. Hybrid models are expected to dominate the next decade, with leagues selling partial rights while experimenting with their own D2C platforms.

At the same time, shifting consumer habits pose new challenges. Younger audiences increasingly favor short-form, on-demand highlights over full-match broadcasts, forcing leagues to rethink their monetization strategies. This transition is already underway, with sports documentaries, behind-the-scenes content, and interactive digital experiences becoming key revenue drivers, Rethink said.

WASHINGTON—The current state of live sports on TV has never been more fluid, with professional sports leagues from the NFL to the NHL experimenting with streaming, pay-TV and even good old fashioned broadcast. 

The evidence of how such fragmentation has led to consumer frustration reached its peak several weeks ago with the uproar over NBC’s exclusive airing of the NFL AFC Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins on its Peacock streaming service (the game was carried live on NBC affiliates in Kansas City and Miami, however).

That incident, along with discussions over how cord cutting has impacted sports TV, as well as the continuing need for rural broadband access and even new opportunities for women’s sports were all on the agenda for the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee hearing yesterday, “TV Timeout: Understanding Sports Media Rights.”

The subcommittee invited a cross section of TV and sports media executives and experts from pay-TV, broadcast and public interest to expound on the current state of sports TV.

More Choices, More Frustration
Chairman Bob Latta (R-Ohio) opened the hearing by identifying the positive aspects of the new age of streaming but warned about the pitfalls of consumer frustration when trying to find their favorite team. 

“Consumers have more choices than ever when it comes to the way they watch their favorite sports. Streaming helps increase competition drive down costs and allow consumers to cut the cord if they want to,” Latta said. “The services are also providing new avenues for diverse content to reach a wider audience for rapidly growing leagues like the WNBA, women's NCAA volleyball to more targeted content like Major League Soccer and Formula One.

“But while the proliferation of streaming has benefited consumers, in many ways, it's also created new challenges,” Latta continued. “The massive fragmentation of the sports media market means consumers must now sign up for multiple streaming services to get the content that they want. And in extreme cases, the only way to watch big games is to sign up for the streamer who holds exclusive rights to enter the game. While this phenomenon isn't new, consumers are worried about what it can mean for big games in the future. Being forced to sign up for a new subscription service for every playoff game is not what consumers want, and not where we should be headed.”

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) warned about how the rise in sports rights fees are threatening legacy media, characterizing sports programs as “the lifeblood of our media ecosystem,” and how the move to streaming could impact broadcast.

“Legacy broadcast media are our most trusted providers of local news, and our most widely available source of critical emergency information,” Pallone said, adding that “we should examine the implications of a significant revenue generator like sports programming, moving off the free airwaves and what this will mean for the future of local news, and the evolving video market.”

Pallone also emphasized the continued need for a variety of federal programs that help low-income and rural households access broadband, helping the federal government combat the “digital divide.” 

“The digital divide persists and whether due to affordability or availability of broadband subscriptions sufficient to stream, live sports often remains out of reach,” he said. “It's just another reason that bipartisan programs like the Affordable Connectivity Program and the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program are necessary to allow all of us to participate in modern society and communal events like sports events.”

More Opportunities for Broadcasters
Brian Lawler, presIdent of Scripps Sports, a division of Scripps Broadcast targeting live local sports, explained how the changes of the past decade, with cord-cutting, rising sports media rights costs and, in particular, the recent turmoil hitting regional sports networks has actually helped improve broadcasters’ profile when it comes to competing with streaming services for live sports.  

“Regional sports networks 10 years ago was a terrific business—it would reach 80% of all the households in the markets,” Lawler said. “Today when we're meeting with teams, they talk about reaching 35-40% of all the households in the market. And so to be an owner of a NHL or an NBA team and to not be able to put your games in front of two thirds of your fans in your home market is a dramatic change. And I think that's the benefit of over the air broadcast—between cable, satellite and our over the air platform, we're able to reach every household in a DMA and of course it's free over the air.”

Lawler told lawmakers that like many broadcasters, Scripps depends on live sports to generate the revenues to support local live journalism.

“For a long time, I thought the strongest part of the network affiliate model was live sports,” Lawler said. “Over the last number of years, much of the entertainment programming has now navigated and shifted over to the direct-to-consumer platforms but live sports has really been the foundation and it's a great economic benefit for our local TV stations. We're very much concerned that the economics and the revenue we bring in from sports also helps fund our local news operation. And most local news operations are not profitable by themselves. We need sports and other assets to be able to generate the revenue that allows us to fund that.”

John Bergmayer, Legal Director for Public Knowledge, noted that differences between pay-TV and streaming are too significant to be addressed through current regulations and proposed several measures to help consumers. 

“The differences between cable and streaming mean that certain regulatory approaches are not applicable, but the goals of competition, diversity, localism and affordability and the need for accessible programming remain the same, even if the way these can be brought about has changed,” he said. “There are some obvious hooks for policymakers to improve things for viewers in the short term: Taxpayer-funded teams should commit to making games available in their local markets on a free ad-supported basis, either through broadcast or streaming. Further, policymakers should review special legal protection some sports get such as antitrust exemptions and ensure they are conditioned on teams putting fans first.”

An Unmistakable Trend
John Ourand, sports journalist for Puck Media, corrected committee members who diplomatically were describing the current state of sports TV as an “evolving landscape.” 

“What’s been described here as a rapidly evolving landscape I view as really ‘chaos’” Ourand said. “There's an unmistakable trend right now, going from traditional linear television, to streaming platforms. Because of that trend, it's taking a lot of money out of the sports marketplace, because the streaming services aren't paying as much as the pay TV services which were actually built for that.”

Despite some of the pessimism over the impact of live sports moving away from broadcast and pay-TV to streaming— particularly to network-owned streaming services that could, in effect, make subscribers pay twice for the privilege of viewing one game—Ourand was optimistic that media companies would temper their enthusiasm for moving marquee sports leagues to a pay-per-view model. 

“All NFL games are going to be on over--the-air broadcast television into the 2030s,” Ourand said, adding that the NBA is renegotiating their sports rights—”those are certainly going to be on broadcast television.”

“The World Series is going to be on broadcast television and I think you can also look at just traditional linear television... the NHL, every single Stanley Cup final game until the end of its contract is going to be on linear television.”

Ourand also noted the increasing competition traditional media companies are facing with Silicon Valley companies like Amazon, Netflix and Apple TV+ getting into the live sports arena. “I think that you're clearly seeing trend lines heading there, but it's not quite a tidal wave yet,” he said. “Broadcast still is a priority to these leagues.”

Despite lawmakers' handwringing, there was little consensus to a solution with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) optimistic that a "marketplace" solution will resolve future issues.

"It seems to me like we're in this kind of confusing area where the industry is trying to sort out how to pay for this content," he said. "And I have faith that we're going to get there because free markets seem to find a way and consumer demand is going to drive consumer behavior and consumer behavior is going to influence the way that we provide that content to them."

Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) was less sanguine.

"I think our job here is to protect the American consumer to ensure that they're able to easily access the content that they pay for," she said. "I mean, I just think it's a racket. It's a racket." 

BURBANK—The CW Network has extended the contract of Dennis Miller as president so that it will run an additional year through 2027. 

Miller joined the network as President in October 2022, following its acquisition by Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and has since worked to revamp its programming with more sports and a new prime-time lineup. 

Those sports rights now include ACC college football and basketball, the NASCAR Xfinity Racing Series, and LIV Golf. By 2025, the network will be carrying more than 400 hours of sports programming over 48 weekends.

“Dennis has done an outstanding job since taking leadership of The CW,” said Perry Sook, Nexstar’s chairman and chief executive officer. “He and Brad Schwartz have completely remade the network and its brand, bringing a fresh, innovative approach to programming that is designed to grow viewership and deliver significant value for our advertisers, affiliates, and distribution partners. When Nexstar acquired The CW, we said we intended to run it for a broadcast audience, and Dennis is doing just that—he has changed the way viewers think about The CW and this contract extension is well-deserved.”

Commenting on his work with The CW, Miller added that “I’m extremely grateful for the confidence that has been placed in me and for the opportunity to continue doing what I love here at The CW—finding entrepreneurial executives who are interested in building for tomorrow, taking advantage of marketplace disruption to find new models for entertainment and sports programming, and working toward becoming a competitive Big 5 network.  And we’re just getting started.”

NEW YORK—Fueled by the ongoing importance of sports programming on TV and streaming services, the annual sports report from S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates that U.S. TV and streaming sports media rights payments will likely total $25.57 billion in 2023 across broadcast, cable, RSNs and streaming services. 

That represents a significant rise from an estimated $14.64 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow to more than $30 billion in 2025 as new deals are forged.

The increases have occurred despite viewership declines, a contracting subscriber base in the traditional cable bundle and a growing list of alternative pay TV services that appeal to cost-conscious consumers, the researchers said. 

The forecast also shows that sports rights rose faster in even years than odd years due to spending on the Summer and Winter Olympics, with 2021 being an outlier as the 2020 Summer Olympics were held in 2021.

The report also contained data from Kagan's U.S. Consumer Insights survey, conducted in September 2022, of 2,528 adults who use the internet showing the important role that live sports plays for the American consumer. Over half of US internet households surveyed (55%) said they typically watch football, and about one-third of households tune into basketball (34%) and baseball games (33%). While not as popular, a host of other sports — including motorsports, golf, soccer and tennis — reach a healthy slice of US households.

More information on the report “From the Stadium to the Screen: Examining the Impact of Streaming on Sports Media and Consumption” by S&P Global Market Intelligence is available here. 

LONDON—Subscription OTT services’ spending on sports rights globally will reach record levels in 2023, hitting $8.5 billion, a 64% spike from 2022 according to a new report from Ampere Analysis’ Sports analyzing the role of sports in the streaming wars.

The research also predicts that the share of spend on sports rights by streaming platforms will increase in 2023 to reach 21% of global sports rights investment, up from 13% in 2022.

This marks a major change in how streaming services spend their programming budgets. The researchers noted that subscription OTT services’ spend on sports rights has lagged behind their investments in original TV and film. In 2022, 28% of original content spending was from streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV+. 

However, as streaming technology has improved, and as fans increasingly expect to be able to stream their favorite sports, the sports streaming model finally took off. At the same time, the challenging economic outlook for traditional sports broadcasters – such as pay TV channels, ad-funded commercial channels and public service broadcasters – incentivizes rights owners to appeal to streaming platforms in order to achieve media rights growth.

Leading the way for streaming platforms’ growing investment in sports rights, particularly in Europe, is DAZN. The global OTT sports streaming service accounted for more than half (54%) of all subscription OTT services’ spend on sports rights in 2022, Ampere reported. 

However, recent years have seen an acceleration in sports rights spend by general entertainment services – such as Peacock and Viaplay – as service providers look to differentiate from peers in an increasingly crowded market. General entertainment services accounted for six of the top 10 subscription OTT services by global spend on sports rights in 2022, the report found.

The exclusive NFL deal with Amazon that kicked off in September 2022 was arguably the turning point for sports on general entertainment OTT platforms. It represented  the largest single deal signed to-date by any sports streaming service, and has since been surpassed only by YouTube – also with the NFL.

“The transition to streaming will take longer for sports than for other genres," explained Jack Genovese, research manager at Ampere Analysis. "This is in part because of the nature of sports rights deals, which typically span multiple years. It is also due to the sheer value of sports rights, and the sensitivities characterizing the distribution and consumption of sport. The need for high quality, low latency feeds will continue to favor risk-averse behavior among broadcasters and rights owners alike. However, streaming will offer opportunities for sports to experiment with content, distribution and monetization, which will revolutionize the way in which sports rights are sold and bought in the future."

Ampere’s research uses the media analyst’s latest suite of data products: Sports – Media Rights, which tracks data on sports TV rights in the largest markets around the world, and Sports – Consumer, a regular series of consumer interviews covering sports fans in 12 countries around the world.

NEW YORK—While sports programming remains extremely popular, the cost of sports rights and a dip in subscribers hurt profit margins at sports networks in 2021, according to a new report from Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The declining profit margins came despite the fact that live sports account for the most popular telecasts across broadcast and cable television. Ratings increased at most sports networks in 2021 following a disrupted 2020 sports schedule due to shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report also found that the combined net advertising revenue of the top 20 sports-related basic cable networks increased by 13.2% in 2021, following a 23.2% decline in 2020. 

Sports networks charge operators some of the highest license fees in the industry, led by ESPN at $8.15 per subscriber per month, Kagan reported. This rate has consistently grown over the last 10 years at an average annual rate of 5.6%.

The rebound in advertising and high sub fees were, however, unable to overcome the rising cost of sports rights and ongoing cord cutting, which hurt subscriber numbers. 

Kagan reported that the U.S. basic cable network industry average cash flow margin was estimated at 39.7% in 2020, which it projected will decline every year to an estimated 31.2% in 2025.

Total subscribers to packages of live linear networks across traditional and virtual multichannel services declined nearly 4.6 million (5.1%) in 2021, according to Kagan estimates for total U.S. residential and commercial video subscriptions.

Sports rights fees are also rising far faster than inflation, with the major leagues bringing in about $15.5 billion per year under current contracts. Rising sports rights costs have been passed from networks to operators and eventually to subscribers in the form of additional fees, which could be up to an additional $15 per month.

LONDON—The bill to broadcast the NFL, NBA, MLB and other popular sports leagues around the world represented more than a quarter of the content spending in 2018, according to a new study from Ampere Analysis. Specifically, $38 billion was spent on sports rights acquisitions last year, making up 26% of all content spending and nearly doubling from the $20 billion spent in 2012.

Most of the spending on sports rights in the U.S. is made up of deals with the NFL, NBA and MLB. These deals have led to the U.S. spending more on sports rights than any other global market, despite a smaller portion of TV revenue (11%) devoted to sports rights than compared to the major Western European markets (17%). Ampere expects this to change over the next six years as rights deals for the three major leagues will expire and are estimated to generate another $4 billion per year.

While major sports leagues like Ligue 1, Bundesliga and La Liga also help drive the sports rights spending in Europe’s top markets, those countries also have invested more in secondary events and competitions, which are maintaining the same pace of growth as major leagues, according to Ampere.

Ampere also pointed out while OTT players are starting to break into sports rights, they are still considered minority players based on their overall spend.

Overall, Ampere believes that there is still room for growth in spending on sports rights in both emerging markets and established ones like Europe and the U.S.

“Even as major leagues turn their attention to international markets outside of Western Europe and the U.S., our analysis shows that there is still opportunity for many of the major competitions in their domestic markets,” said Alexios Dimitropoulos, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Although there are significant competitive pressures on TV revenues due to the rise of new online competitors, the impending direct-to-consumer fragmentation of the market may also open up opportunities for sports rights bodies—who will increasingly hold some of the few premium rights that money can still buy.”

CHESEAUX, Switzerland & PHOENIX—Now in its fourth year, the Pay-TV Innovation Forum, organized by NAGRA and MTM, has released its global findings based off of industry executives in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Forum focused on a number of key industry trends, including OTT services, next-generation content aggregation, piracy and pay-TV digital transformation, among others.

On the surface it seems that pay-TV and OTT services are opposing entities, but a majority of industry executives that took part in the forum actually see OTT technology having a positive impact on their business. Seventy percent of those polled shared this view, while 21% see a negative impact. While new streaming services like Apple TV+ and Disney+ will soon be rolled out, they are not seen as a significant threat to pay-TV and can actually be an opportunity to adopt a super-aggregator model for these services. Super-aggregator platforms could emerge within the next five years, according to 77% of executives. However, combined services—like what Disney will offer with a bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+—could prove as a significant competitor.

However, pay-TV execs still recognize that certain things have to change in their industry to appease customers, and one such solution could be the restructuring of traditional pay-TV packages. Over the next decade, 91% of respondents believe innovation in product pricing and packaging will be key to attracting and retaining customers, especially the next generation of consumers.

One thing that they don’t expect to change, however, is the importance of keeping tier-one sports on pay-TV. OTT services are beginning to challenge pay-TV’s sports dominance with things like OTT aggregators and direct-to-consumer services from leagues, clubs and broadcasters. A total of 85% of respondents believe OTT sports streaming will increase in their country from by 2024. As a result, 93% see sport streaming services as valuable partners for pay-TV providers seeking to aggregate content and services.

Content piracy is still seen as a “challenge” to pay-TV businesses, according to 60% of the forum, with 65% believing that piracy has gotten worse or stayed the same in their countries, with nearly half believing piracy pressures will increase in the next five years. To combat piracy, the execs believe it will take a combination improvements to pay-TV offerings, deeper collaboration across the industry and new technology.

It was also widely believed among respondents (79%) that to compete, pay-TV will need to invest in areas like big data analytics, automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning. They mostly believe that they can be doing more to invest in these data and analytics capabilities.

“This year’s findings illustrate the ongoing need for transformation, as the pace of change across the industry accelerates. The wave of new OTT offerings entering the U.S. market are causing considerable anxiety, but the industry remains confident that it can continue to thrive,” said Jon Watts, managing partner for MTM. “Pay-TV providers will have to continue to innovate, developing better offerings and services that deliver what consumers are looking for. Faced with ever-growing competition, increasing fragmentation and fast-paced innovation, pay-TV businesses will have to decide which opportunities to pursue and which investments to prioritize.”

Find the full report here.