Why sports rights matter
As the streaming market reaches saturation point, adding live sport has become a new path to acquiring and retaining subscribers – and there’s evidence that it works. According to reports, Netflix gained approximately 1.5m US sign-ups from the Tyson/Paul boxing match and roughly 700,000 subscribers from its deal to show NFL Christmas Day games.
Audiences flocking to live sport on streaming platforms has created lucrative opportunities for advertisers. According to research from WARC, sports sponsorship delivers better awareness than other types of entertainment: 73% vs 3%. Moreover, sports sponsorship has been found to drive stronger growth than traditional brand-led advertising, averaging a 58% increase in emotional response that drives effectiveness.
What’s going on
A total of $64bn is expected to be spent on sports rights in 2025; streamers will account for one-fifth of the total, representing an increase of 2% since 2024 and massively up from 2021 when it was just 8%, according to new figures from Ampere Analysis.
DAZN, a British sports streaming platform that acquired the rights to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, is the biggest spender, followed by Amazon in second, YouTube in third, and Netflix in fourth, reports Advanced Television.
The analysis found that streamers have already committed to spending $12.5bn on sports rights this year.
Sports gives rise to entertainment
While live sport is lucrative in and of itself, there are significant opportunities related to the drama that occurs off the playing field, pitch, or racetrack. Neftlix’s Drive to Survive, a docuseries about Formula 1, is credited with increasing American interest in the sport, with rights holder ESPN benefitting from bigger TV audiences.
ESPN is estimated to draw about 1.1m viewers per race compared to 554,000 in 2018 before the show aired. The broadcast rights for Formula 1 in the US are up at the end of the year and likely to draw interest from the big streamers who see it as a chance to add a bit of F1 glamour to their lineup.
Amazon, meanwhile, will be using its 11-year rights to the NBA – starting in the autumn – to introduce its first Prime Video studio show. Danielle Carney, the head of live sports and video sales for Amazon Ads, called it a “core value prop” for the company, in remarks reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
The studio programming is being created with brand sponsorships in mind, says the news story, and integrations that will include first-party measurements. These “trillions of signals and measured outcomes” that can be provided to advertisers will be a “point of distinction” for Amazon, Carney added.
Sourced from Advanced Television, the Hollywood Reporter, the New York Times, WARC
Suorce: warc.com
