Streamers to Spend $8.5 Billion on Sports Rights in 2023

SVOD services will shell out some $8.5 billion on sports rights this year, according to Ampere Analysis, a 64 percent increase on last year.

Ampere’s study tracked OTT services’ expenditure on sports rights in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, India and South Africa. It indicates that OTT’s share of global sports rights investments will rise to 21 percent this year, up from 13 percent in 2022.

DAZN remains out front in the sports streaming sector, Ampere says, accounting for 54 percent of OTT sports spend in 2022. However, general-entertainment services are increasing their presence, with Prime Video, Viaplay, Apple TV+ and Peacock among the top OTT services in terms of sports rights expenditure.

“The transition to streaming will take longer for sports than for other genres,” said 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.”