Streamers Upping Sports Rights Spend in Top European Markets

According to new data from Ampere Analysis, streaming services will be responsible for one-fifth of all sports rights spend this year across Europe’s largest markets.

In the “big five” European markets—the U.K., Italy, Germany, France and Spain—Ampere expects OTT platforms to account for 20 percent of all spend on rights for sports broadcasts in 2022, up from 12 percent in 2021.

In particular, DAZN and Amazon have grown their investments in sports rights in the five countries in recent years, with reach an estimated combined spend of over €2.3 billion ($2.5 million) by the end of 2022.

Italy leads the way in Europe, with more than half (53 percent) of the country’s sports spending generated by subscription OTT services by the end of the year, followed by Germany (32 percent), Spain (16 percent) and France (14 percent). In the U.K., just 2 percent of the spend on sports TV rights is from streaming subscriptions. However, all the major subscription sports services in the U.K.—Sky, BT, Eurosport—also offer OTT services that enable sports fans to watch live sports.

While the big five European countries are key drivers of the growth of OTT in the sports rights markets, the trend is also emerging on a global scale. Across Europe, Nordic Entertainment Group has been rolling out its Viaplay subscription OTT platform, securing key sports rights such as the Premier League, Bundesliga and Formula 1. In the U.S., seven of the ten biggest streaming services will air at least one live sporting event in the next two years.

Ben McMurray, analyst at Ampere Analysis, said: “In the most developed markets, fixed-line broadband is approaching ubiquity and subscription OTT is already in as many households as Pay TV, so internet access is no longer a limiting factor. However, streaming services nonetheless need to solve business model challenges before they can seriously rival incumbent pay-TV groups. Sustaining the current level of investment in sports rights without the benefit of the economics of bundling will be one of the key issues for subscription OTT players entering the sports rights market.”