Sports Media Rights Hit $65.8B In 2026

Media rights, the fees networks and streamers pay to air games, jumped 15% from 2025 in a year with the World Cup and Winter Olympics.

Industry publisher SportBusiness forecasts a dip to $62.2B in 2027, and growth since 2024, also an Olympic year, is only 5%.

The US now holds 53.9% of global value, up from 46% in 2022, with American football's NFL and basketball's NBA alone taking 30%.

Each national football association would receive $25M over 2027-30, up from a planned $10M, while the six regional confederations would get $99M each.

World football's governing body FIFA would draw over $3.5B from reserves after the men's World Cup earned about $15B, beating its initial $11B forecast.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, seeking re-election next year, faced resignation calls after a failed plan to sell 20% of FIFA's commercial operations to investors.

Netflix, a major premium streaming service, is cutting about 1K jobs to reduce its total staff of 16K workers by roughly 6%.

The historic layoffs mostly impact technology and human resources teams, despite the company securing over 325M global subscribers and strong recent profits.

Executives made this decision because investors grew worried that individual users spent less time watching content on the platform in early 2026.

The women's golf league currently gets a small fraction of the PGA Tour's $700M annual broadcast contract, which runs through 2030.

Officials believe the tour is undervalued as average viewership grew to 200K this year, peaking at 1.3M for its biggest tournament.

The organization is planning ahead because massive upcoming TV renewals from the NFL could drain available network budgets across the sports industry.

Riyadh Season, the Saudi entertainment festival that runs the event, moved it from late October to Dec. 27-30, citing logistical reasons.

The delay follows missile and drone strikes on Riyadh's airport by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels that killed at least 14 people.

Each of the six players, including stars Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, is guaranteed $1.5M, but it is unclear if all will attend.

Former Germany captain Lahm says the rule keeps majority voting rights with club members, mostly fans, so outside investors cannot take control.

Germany's competition regulator upheld the rule but rejected permanent exemptions for Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, clubs owned by drug maker Bayer and carmaker Volkswagen.

Lahm rejects claims the rule makes German clubs less competitive, noting the Bundesliga is football's second-richest league with the world's highest average crowds.

A large majority of players in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), a pro league launched in 2025, asked management to recognize their union.

The union says 2026's growth, with six teams instead of four, merchandise sales up 110% and broadcast ratings up 150%, justifies a formal contract.

Players earned $35K on average in 2025, and Harry Marino, who helped Minor League Baseball players unionize in 2022, is advising them.

Don Garber, head of US soccer league MLS, said the league does not police owners' conduct elsewhere; NYCFC faces no allegations of wrongdoing.

An independent panel found English club Manchester City guilty of making its finances look over $1.1B (£830M) better than reality; City is appealing.

Both clubs belong to City Football Group, controlled by UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour; NYCFC's finance chief ran Manchester City's finances until 2018.