Global Sports Rights climb to over $67 billion in 2026

The big business of televised sports continues to evolve, highlighted in 2026 by rising media rights costs, record-breaking franchise valuations, strategic M&A activity, and US Federal Communications Commission scrutiny. The power of live sports in bringing the world together is fully on display in 2026, with events like the Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup and World Baseball Classic attracting audiences globally throughout the year.

The sports media landscape is expanding, and more sports are being broadcast across TV networks, streaming services, and direct-to-consumer apps. This has driven the value of sports media rights, with a string of massive deals forged in the past year, including Paramount Skydance Corp.'s seven-year deal with the UFC for $7.7 billion. The NFL is now poised to renegotiate its current media rights deal ahead of schedule, which will likely result in more media partners and more money.

The rise in sports media rights has driven skyrocketing valuations for professional sports franchises, with a series of record-breaking deals being brokered in recent years. This includes the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025 to Mark Walter, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, at a $10 billion valuation — the highest team sale in history. As popularity and valuations increase, private equity firms are investing more heavily in sports.

Media companies are putting sports rights in center focus when evaluating M&A activity, which is heating up. Recent examples include:

• The combination of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Paramount Skydance will create a company with a wide array of sports rights, including the full rights package to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship tournament. As part of the deal, Paramount will have to pay Netflix Inc. a $2.8 billion termination fee, which gives Netflix deeper pockets to negotiate future rights deals.
• The spinoff of Versant Media Group Inc. resulted in the creation of the company's USA Sports division, which is heavily invested in golf, NASCAR and the Premier League.
• The NFL's deal with Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN (US) was finalized in January, resulting in the NFL obtaining a 10% stake in ESPN. This groundbreaking deal highlights the growing symbiotic relationship between media companies and sports leagues.

Cord-cutting continues to pressure traditional TV network margins, especially at the local level. This has resulted in the proliferation of sports streaming services and a shift in media rights from linear channels to other platforms. This has resulted in record investment from streaming companies like Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video in live sports content. On the flip side, sports' shift to streaming has increased customer frustration as fans now have to subscribe to multiple services to catch all the action. The FCC has launched inquiries into this migration, highlighting concerns over the growing costs that consumers have to pay to watch their favorite teams compete.

The challenges faced by the regional sports networks have resulted in an overhaul of local media rights, with the MLB at center stage. The league has been launching a flurry of team-branded channels to replace regional sports network (RSN) coverage. While this transition has resulted in a near-term decline in local sports rights in many cases, it has also often expanded access to local games and increased viewership. The NBA has also been discussing plans to create a national streaming RSN for local rights.

The consumption of sports has also carried over into an increase in "non-event" sports programming, which includes sports talk and recap shows, as well as docuseries like Netflix's "Receiver" and Apple Inc.'s Apple TV's "Lionel Messi: The Greatest." These productions aim to attract new audiences and bolster new methods of fan engagement. Leagues have also been increasing their social media presences and putting out more content across YouTube and TikTok in an effort to capture the attention of younger audiences.

The growing popularity of sports has been met by a rapidly evolving sports gambling industry. In 2026, legal US sportsbook apps like FanDuel Inc. and DraftKings Inc. are now in competition with prediction market apps like Kalshi and Polymarket. These peer-to-peer platforms enable sports bets to be placed in all 50 states, despite sports gambling still being illegal in ten states, including California and Texas.

In this report, we take a closer look at the broadcast, basic cable and regional sports networks that hold valuable sports rights, analyzing their reach, revenues and expenses. We also examine how streaming services are continuing to grow their live sports rights catalogs to attract subscribers. The report is organized into the following sections:

• Global sports media rights
• The popularity of televised sports
• US nationally distributed sports networks
• The cost to consumers
• Local sports rights
• Direct-to-consumer sports services
• Sports gambling and prediction markets