Business Finance Media Technology Policy Wealth Insights Interviews

Art Art Fairs Art Market Art Reviews Auctions Galleries Museums Interviews

Lifestyle Nightlife & Dining Style Travel Interviews

Power Index Nightlife & Dining Art A.I. PR

About About Observer Advertise With Us Reprints

Live Sports Are Fueling Streaming Growth, But Streamers Need an Off-Season Plan

Sports remain streaming’s strongest acquisition tool, but retention hinges on building smart post-game viewing funnels.

Here’s a blinding glimpse of the obvious: streaming audiences love sports! But the cost of sports rights has grown to untenable proportions. The amount of sports content across the five global streamers (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Paramount , Disney ) has grown by 52 percent since January 2024, according to Nielsen. Across the industry, streamers will spend a bottom-line-busting $14.2 billion on sports in 2026, per Ampere Analysis. The NFL’s looming renegotiations will be so expensive that legacy media executives are already talking about “rebalancing” their portfolios (i.e., cutting spending elsewhere) to afford it. 

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

As the streaming industry matures, these platforms desperately want to shift sports rights from loss leaders to money-makers. Raising subscription prices is a temporary band-aid. Long-term, streamers need to build content libraries that maximize retention well into the off-season to have any hope of recouping their investments. This brings us to an obvious yet complicated question: who are sports fans and what else do they like to watch? 

Given increased competition, price sensitivity and overall saturation, premium streamers are finding it harder to attract........

© Observer