Beyond Broadcast: The New Economics of Sports IP (Part 2)
Part 2 from the Sports Media report on why smart rights holders are diversifying revenue streams through data, direct distribution, and fan-first content strategies
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While 2025 brought headlines about billion-dollar streaming deals, i.e. DAZNâs $1B FIFA World Cup agreement, Apple TVâs $150M annual Formula 1 package, etc., the real story emerging from Altman Solonâs latest Global Sports Survey isnât about whoâs writing the biggest checks. Itâs about what comes after.
In our previous breakdown of their survey on evolving fan habits and media consumption, we explored how 66% of fans struggle to access content and why younger generations are fragmenting away from live sports. Now, the second report in their three-part series reveals how rights holders are scrambling to close the monetisation gap thatâs opening up as a result.
The Selective Streamer Problem
Letâs address the elephant in the room: global streamers have entered sports rights in a big way, but theyâre being highly selective. The numbers tell the storyâ45% of executives expect âglobal deals with select content onlyâ (think Netflix streaming NFL games exclusively on Christmas Day) to become the norm, versus just 19% who see full-coverage deals as the future.
Why? Direct-to-consumer economics are structurally tighter than traditional broadcast models. Platforms are only pursuing rights that clearly accelerate subscriber growth, reduce churn, and strengthen brand positioning. Major U.S. media groups now dedicate 26% of their total content spend to sports (up from 20% in 2019), but theyâre cherry-picking marquee moments, not building âhome of sportsâ destinations.
Streaming is also approaching a critical tipping point. Globally, weekly streaming viewing time (3h 30min) is nearing parity with linear TV (4h), with the crossover expected later in 2026. Spain and Italy have already flipped as Spanish fans spend 40% more time consuming sports via streaming than linear. France remains largely linear-led, though Ligue 1âs OTT strategy could shift viewing habits soon.
The Creator Economy Meets Sports Rights
Hereâs where it gets interesting: a new breed of distribution partner is emerging, and theyâre not traditional broadcasters. In 2025, we saw digital creators become legitimate rights holders:
La Liga granted clip rights to The Rest is Football podcast (Goalhanger), targeting younger, highlights-focused audiences
Bundesliga granted âThatâs Footballâ rights to stream live Friday-night matches in the U.K.
NFL partnered with YouTube to stream the 2025 season opener live and free worldwide from Brazil
Saudi Pro League awarded French streamer Zack Nani exclusive rights to stream selected matches for the 2025-26 season
The creator economy is booming, accelerated by generative AI and low-cost production tools. Among industry executives, 51% believe the scarcity and cultural relevance of sports IP will only increase in value as AI floods the market with generic content. Yet monetisation lags as willingness to pay for creator-led content still falls below traditional formats, leaving a gap between reach and returns.
The $0.50 Problem: Non-Live Content Is Massively Undermonetised
Survey data reveals something critical: 42% of 25-34 year-olds are very willing to pay for live games, but 30% would also pay for highlights and clips. That second number is being almost entirely ignored.
As Andreas Kaeshammer from Infront Sports & Media puts it: âGen Alpha would rather pay 50 cents for a 15-minute reel of their favorite strikersâ touches than a $30 monthly subscription.â
Currently, non-live content is treated as promotional fuel for live viewership and not as a standalone revenue driver. So what is the opportunity? Build a clearly segmented non-live offering that generates incremental revenue without cannibalising traditional live-rights partnerships.
Younger fans (18-34) now spend nearly 3x more time on non-live formats than on live sports. Only 39% of Gen Z typically watch a full match from start to finish, compared to 61% of fans over 65. This elevates the role of non-live formats in capturing attention and monetising engagement, while also demanding a rethink of attention-based advertising and sponsorship models.
The Piracy Paradox: Revenue Loss or Market Signal?
More than one in five sports viewers under 35 use unofficial streaming channels. Thatâs significant revenue leakage, but itâs also a flashing market signal.
These arenât casual fans, theyâre high-intent consumers actively seeking access to content. Theyâre just not willing to pay current prices through current channels. So, the challenge for rights holders isnât enforcement; itâs conversion through digital-first offers that are:
Easier to access
Better tailored to consumption habits
Fairly priced for casual viewing
As Fabien Robineau from Eurovision notes: âWeâve got to tackle piracy by making it easier to access legally: create lower-friction entry points (freemium, etc.) while protecting premium rights. Weâre in the âNapsterâ era â sports needs a âSpotifyâ model.â
Franceâs Ligue 1 learned this the hard way, hemorrhaging hundreds of millions to piracy while their D2C platform struggled with adoption. The lesson? Technology infrastructure alone doesnât solve the problem, you need robust anti-piracy measures, smart pricing, consumer education, and a compelling value proposition.
The New Value Pyramid: DTC and Data
Rights holders now rank two emerging monetisation levers as most critical:
1. Direct-to-Consumer (49%): spanning not only content and OTT, but also consumer products, branded retail/venues, and live experiences
2. Data monetisation (38%): including sports analytics data, fan data for targeted marketing, and performance data for betting platforms
This represents a fundamental shift from selling rights to building relationships. The next value pool comes from owning first-party fan insights and layering new products on top of core rights, not just licensing content and walking away.
Other emerging opportunities include:
Licensing content to creators and AI models (27%)
Virtual advertising and programmatic sponsorships (20%)
Deeper betting integration with live odds and micro-bets (18%)
IP licensing into gaming and location-based experiences (12%)
The Portfolio Approach: Flexibility Over Maximisation
The winning strategy for 2026 and beyond isnât about extracting maximum value from a single mega-deal. Itâs about designing a portfolio of monetisation streams:
Strategic packaging for selective streamers: Give platforms the specific rights that drive their business goals, not everything. IP owners must offer unprecedented flexibility, serving incumbents seeking volume bundles and streamers focused on marquee assets.
Structured creator licensing: Partner with digital creators for top-of-funnel exposure and audience building. As Eyal Arad from Videocites notes: âThe most valuable way for sports rights owners to monetise 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.â
DTC revenue layers: Build direct fan relationships through premium content, merchandise, and experiences. This includes team/league OTT platforms (pay-to-access), premium tiers with content augmentation, loyalty programmes with status and exclusive access, gaming (pay-to-play), digital experiences, and physical experiences like live events, mixed-use districts, and location-based attractions.
Data-driven products: Monetise fan insights and performance analytics as standalone offerings. This spans performance data for betting platforms, fan data licensed to marketing partners, and sports analytics sold to teams and media companies.
What This Means for the Industry
As direct content monetisation declines across lower-ARPU streaming and creator channels, sports rights owners must diversify into adjacent revenue streams, with media content increasingly acting as a marketing engine rather than a standalone profit center.
Weâre entering an era where sports content is increasingly valuable to platforms but less effective at standalone monetisation through traditional models. The paradox is real: your content is worth more than ever, but you canât capture that value the old way.
The solution? Expanded distribution that provides the exposure needed to fuel adjacent revenue streams. Think of traditional rights deals as the foundation, not the finish line. The real growth comes from what you build on top:
Fan data you can monetise through targeted marketing
Performance analytics you can license to teams, bettors, and fantasy platforms
Direct relationships that enable premium upsells
Creator partnerships that extend reach without diluting exclusivity
The $27 Billion Question
With limited direct monetisation, content distributed via creator and digital platforms primarily delivers exposure and marketing value. To convert this attention into revenue, rights owners must build new services and conversion points, while carefully balancing the demands of still-essential traditional rights licenses.
Industry confidence remains strong at 77/100, with 88% of leaders optimistic about the next 12 months. But that optimism varies by stakeholder:
Investors (94%) and tech/service providers (92%) are most bullish, makes sense considering theyâre best positioned to capture upside
Media companies (80%) and teams/leagues (80%) show more caution due to structural pressures
Critically, 80% of executives believe investor-led models will drive the most growth over the next 3-5 years.
Final Thoughts
Rights holders sitting on stagnating media revenues have a choice: continue optimising a declining model, or embrace the portfolio approach that diversifies risk and unlocks new value pools.
The winners will be those who recognise that âunlocking the full value of sports IPâ doesnât mean squeezing more from broadcast deals, it means building an ecosystem where rights, relationships, and data work together to create sustainable growth.
As streamers become more selective and creators prioritise reach over revenue, sports organisations face a dilemma: they need to distribute content more widely to maintain audience exposure, but this expanded distribution generates less direct revenue than traditional broadcast deals. The solution is to compensate for lower media rights income by building new services and conversion points that turn that expanded audience reach into revenue through other channelsâ be it data licensing, DTC platforms, merchandise, experiences, or fan engagement tools.
The game has changed. The question is whether organisations are playing by the old rules or learning the new ones?
Thanks for reading,
Dean
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