Streaming services will account for a fifth of global sports rights spend in 2025, according to Ampere’s sports media rights data. Their combined spend on sports rights will reach $12.5bn this year (representing 20% of the $64bn total), with much of this growth driven by the expanding sports budgets of general entertainment streamers. However, dedicated sports streaming platform DAZN will maintain its position as the world’s top spender on sports rights.

DAZN will account for one third of streaming spend on sports in 2025, boosted by its $1bn deal for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. This is on top of its increased investment over the past five years in top tier sports rights in major European markets such as Germany, Italy, Spain and most recently France. Moreover, DAZN’s share of the global sports rights market will be even higher once its acquisition of Foxtel in Australia completes.

However, as streaming subscription nears saturation point in mature markets, general entertainment platforms are increasingly turning to sports. Amazon is the second top streaming spender, with its share increasing from 18% to 23% following its acquisition of NBA rights from the 2025-26 season onwards. Other major rights held by Amazon include NFL Thursday Night Football in the US and UEFA Champions League in Germany, Italy and the UK.

YouTube TV remains in third place, due to its deal for the NFL Sunday Ticket being worth a reported $2bn per season and Netflix is now the fourth biggest streaming investor in sports rights. This is thanks to its three- year agreement to show Christmas Day NFL games and its $500m per year deal with WWE which started in 2025.

While the introduction of advertising tiers provides streamers with further incentive to acquire live rights, season-long rights to major sports remain a valuable driver of both subscriber acquisition and retention. Ampere’s SVoD Economics data shows the recent impact of live sports in driving subscriptions:

• Netflix gained around 1.5m sign-ups in the US following the Paul/Tyson boxing match. 80% of these were still active one month later. The streamer signed up almost 700,000 subs for its NFL Christmas Day games

• Peacock gained 2m subscriptions across the weekend of its exclusive NFL play-off game in 2024

• Paramount+ added 2.4m subs on the day of its Super Bowl coverage in 2024