The Future of Sports Media

Sports are entering a new growth cycle, and the mood across the ecosystem is notably upbeat. Altman Solon’s Global Sports Industry Confidence Index is at 77/100, with 88% of leaders expressing optimism about the global sports sector’s future over the next 12 months. Optimism is strongest among the stakeholders best positioned to capture upside: investors, as well as tech and service providers, while media companies, teams, and leagues are slightly more cautious amid structural pressure in the media market.  

The signal is clear: the sports sector is entering a new phase of expansion, underpinned by capital inflows, innovation, and new content distribution models.  

For 2026, the focus should be on taking more ownership of the fan base, engaging deeply with them, and monetizing across channels — from social, to events, streaming, and health/fitness apps — with new levels of personalization.

— Gilles Domartini, CEO, Cleeng

That confidence is grounded in sports’ distinct risk profile in a media landscape flooded with content and rising commoditization. As other genres face increasing uncertainty amid shifting consumer tastes, sports remain scarce, culturally relevant, and appointment-based, a combination that continues to enable premium monetization across subscriptions, advertising, and sponsorship.  

Consumer behavior reinforces the point: sports viewing is widespread across age groups, and demand is still growing, especially among 25–34-year-olds.  

At the same time, attention is fragmented, especially among younger fans. While overall sports video consumption is at an all-time high, viewing is shifting from traditional live broadcasts toward a broader mix of formats. Non-live content continues to gain share, and among 18–34-year-olds the shift is decisive: they spend nearly three times more time with non-live formats (e.g., highlights, short-form, unscripted, creator-led content) than watching live games. Younger audiences are also less likely to consume full events end-to-end, elevating the role of non-live content. No longer just add-ons to live coverage; these formats increasingly carry standalone value.

Sports rights owners can win big by treating IP as a core asset and building direct fan relationships, turning every highlight, jersey, archive, and data point into a monetizable product. 

— Mohit Pareek, Partner, Drake Star 

Across age groups, fans engage differently by content type: linear TV continues to over-index on live games and highlights; while streaming and social platforms lead in short-form and creator-driven formats. At an aggregate level, weekly sports viewing time on streaming is now approaching linear TV, with streaming expected to overtake it in 2026. Winning in this environment will require diversified, buyer-specific channel strategies that reflect how each platform creates value.

Capturing the full potential of these shifts is far from assured; rights owners and investors must adapt strategically:  

• On the product side, the industry must evolve toward a multi-format, multi-channel offering, as consumption is no longer anchored in traditional TV or a live-first model. Media rights strategies should be designed to support a broad range of product–market fits across distribution channels, each serving different audience segments and content formats, to address the full spectrum of platforms and audiences.

• On the operational side, organizations must expand core capabilities, moving from event management and traditional rights sales to full-stack production and direct-to-consumer (DTC) publishing, multi-platform licensing, and tech-enabled services across the value chain.  

The industry is entering a new era of accelerated transformation, where the scale of opportunity matches the scale of change required to capture it. 

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Unlocking the Full Value of Sports IP

The most valuable way for sports rights owners to monetize their IP over the next 3-5 years will be to license content to top fan-creators and harness their own network to expand globally.

 — Eyal Arad, CEO, Videocites 

2025 marked the definitive entry of global streamers into the sports rights market, from DAZN's $1 billion agreement to broadcast the FIFA World Cup to Apple TV's approximately $150 million annual deal to broadcast Formula 1 in the U.S. Coming after years of cord-cutting and softening pay-TV investment, these deals reintroduce competitive tension and expand the buyer set. Our findings, borne out both in survey data and in conversations with sports executives, show that the next era of rights value won’t be driven by more of the same. Direct-to-consumer economics are structurally tighter, and leading platforms will pursue sports selectively, anchoring bids around rights that clearly accelerate growth, reduce churn, and strengthen brand positioning.

Leaders expect global deals for selected rights (for example, Netflix streaming NFL games on Christmas Day) to become the most common model, rather than the full-inventory, full-competition coverage agreements of the past.

In parallel, consumer behavior continues to shift toward a hybrid channel mix. Globally, streaming is approaching parity with linear TV in weekly sports viewing hours, yet the balance varies materially by market, reinforcing the need to localize distribution strategies rather than relying on a single global blueprint.

At the top of the funnel, a new breed of partner is becoming increasingly common: digital creators. In 2025, leagues leaned in — La Liga granted clip rights to The Rest is Football podcast, and the Saudi Pro League awarded French streamer Zack Nani free-to-air rights for the 2025–26 season.

But creators also spotlight the next monetization gap: fans are most willing to pay for access to live games, yet a meaningful slice would also pay for non-live content—and that demand is largely untapped. For example, 42% of 25–34s are very willing to pay for live games, versus 30% for highlights and clips. Today, non-live content is still valued mainly as a promotion for live, not as a standalone revenue driver. The opportunity is to build a complementary, clearly segmented non-live offer that adds incremental revenue while protecting traditional live-rights partners.  

Gen Alpha would rather pay 50 cents for a 15-minute reel of their favorite strikers' touches than a $30 monthly subscription. Rights holders need models for this.

 — Andreas Kaeshammer, Head of Football, Infront Sports & Media AG 

Leaders rank DTC content (e.g., premium content access, branded retail/venues) and data (e.g., sports data for analytics, fan data for marketing) as the most important emerging monetization levers, signaling that the next value pool will come from building direct relationships, owning first-party insights, and layering new products on top of core rights.

Piracy is widespread, particularly among younger fans, with more than one in five sports viewers under 35 using unofficial channels. Although these unofficial streams create meaningful revenue leakage, they also point to a clear opportunity: a large group of younger, high-intent fans is actively seeking access to content. The challenge for rights owners is to convert that demand into paid consumption through digital-first offers that are easier to access, better tailored, and fairly priced.

In this new environment, maximizing rights value is less about a single deal and more about designing a portfolio: flexible packaging for selective streamers, structured top-of-funnel creator licensing, and a clear plan to monetize the audience through DTC, data-driven offerings, and adjacent products and experiences. In a time when sports content is increasingly valuable to platforms but less effective at standalone monetization, we believe expanded distribution will provide the exposure needed to fuel new adjacent revenue streams central to growth. 

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The Future of Sports Media

Sports are entering a new growth cycle, and the mood across the ecosystem is notably upbeat. Altman Solon’s Global Sports Industry Confidence Index is at 77/100, with 88% of leaders expressing optimism about the global sports sector’s future over the next 12 months. Optimism is strongest among the stakeholders best positioned to capture upside: investors, as well as tech and service providers, while media companies, teams, and leagues are slightly more cautious amid structural pressure in the media market.  

The signal is clear: the sports sector is entering a new phase of expansion, underpinned by capital inflows, innovation, and new content distribution models.  

For 2026, the focus should be on taking more ownership of the fan base, engaging deeply with them, and monetizing across channels — from social, to events, streaming, and health/fitness apps — with new levels of personalization.

— Gilles Domartini, CEO, Cleeng

That confidence is grounded in sports’ distinct risk profile in a media landscape flooded with content and rising commoditization. As other genres face increasing uncertainty amid shifting consumer tastes, sports remain scarce, culturally relevant, and appointment-based, a combination that continues to enable premium monetization across subscriptions, advertising, and sponsorship.  

Consumer behavior reinforces the point: sports viewing is widespread across age groups, and demand is still growing, especially among 25–34-year-olds.  

At the same time, attention is fragmented, especially among younger fans. While overall sports video consumption is at an all-time high, viewing is shifting from traditional live broadcasts toward a broader mix of formats. Non-live content continues to gain share, and among 18–34-year-olds the shift is decisive: they spend nearly three times more time with non-live formats (e.g., highlights, short-form, unscripted, creator-led content) than watching live games. Younger audiences are also less likely to consume full events end-to-end, elevating the role of non-live content. No longer just add-ons to live coverage; these formats increasingly carry standalone value.

Sports rights owners can win big by treating IP as a core asset and building direct fan relationships, turning every highlight, jersey, archive, and data point into a monetizable product. 

— Mohit Pareek, Partner, Drake Star 

Across age groups, fans engage differently by content type: linear TV continues to over-index on live games and highlights; while streaming and social platforms lead in short-form and creator-driven formats. At an aggregate level, weekly sports viewing time on streaming is now approaching linear TV, with streaming expected to overtake it in 2026. Winning in this environment will require diversified, buyer-specific channel strategies that reflect how each platform creates value.

Capturing the full potential of these shifts is far from assured; rights owners and investors must adapt strategically:  

• On the product side, the industry must evolve toward a multi-format, multi-channel offering, as consumption is no longer anchored in traditional TV or a live-first model. Media rights strategies should be designed to support a broad range of product–market fits across distribution channels, each serving different audience segments and content formats, to address the full spectrum of platforms and audiences.

• On the operational side, organizations must expand core capabilities, moving from event management and traditional rights sales to full-stack production and direct-to-consumer (DTC) publishing, multi-platform licensing, and tech-enabled services across the value chain.  

The industry is entering a new era of accelerated transformation, where the scale of opportunity matches the scale of change required to capture it.