The ultimate guide to the sports rights deals changing how we watch games

When the NBA struck a landmark broadcast rights deal last month, it said its primary objective was to “maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans.”

In today’s terms, accessibility means making more of the season available to fans who prefer to stream games. So it’s not surprising that the NBA’s latest partners include Disney’s ESPN, a cable network with a streaming component (ESPN+); Comcast’s NBC, a broadcast network with streaming (Peacock); and Amazon Prime Video, a streaming-only platform.

Streaming continues to influence the rising sums of national sports deals, as tech companies like Amazon and Apple make big plays for sports rights and force traditional media companies to adapt to better compete. These publishers see sports rights as a way to cement their place in media as athletic events grow more popular around the world and audiences look for modern ways to watch them. Sports events are among the most-viewed programs on TV, and winning media rights attracts that fandom — as well as advertisers.

“Sports media rights will continue to rise as the live audience continues to be highly coveted and valuable,” says Pete Giorgio, who leads Deloitte’s sports practice.

Just look at the ratings in 2024: Super Bowl LVIII was the most-watched TV program in U.S. history. The NBA playoffs lifted TNT as the top-rated basic cable network during its run. The recent Summer Olympics attracted an average of 30 million viewers each day, an 82% increase from the 2021 Games. It’s clear why the value of mainstream sports has grown exponentially.

Further, sports give networks the chance to fill out their programming— space that would otherwise require costly original or licensed content. Each NBA team plays 82 games a season, for instance, and every MLB team plays nearly double that.

It’s no wonder, then, that the NBA is just the latest league to fetch an eye-popping amount of money for the privilege of airing its games. In the last few seasons, we’ve seen a battle royale among media and tech companies for the rights to other leagues like the NFL, MLB and MLS.

“There’s less money overall, and more of that money is being allocated toward sports,” Jonathan Miller, CEO of Integrated Media and a former of VP of programming for the NBA, recently told The Hollywood Reporter, regarding entertainment companies’ content spend. “The sports audience is a more-or-less guaranteed audience — predictable, you can sell against it, you kind of know where it’s going to fall within ranges.”

The total annual value of all U.S. sports rights payments could reach nearly $30 billion this year across broadcast, cable and streaming, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. It projects that that number could reach almost $35 billion by 2027.

Traditional linear TV will continue to play a large role in sports media, but declines in that business are tough to ignore; marketers need to know how to navigate this new streaming environment. Read on as The Current breaks down these rights deals for the U.S. major leagues, sport by sport, to help marketers understand the emerging opportunity.

Where the rights stand:

ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS and Fox’s deal with the MLB runs through 2028 and is worth $12 billion over seven years. Apple, which streams Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+, is paying nearly $600 million for its deal that goes through 2029.

How it compares to the previous deal:

ESPN is paying less for its current deal with the MLB than it was previously, from $700 million per year to $550 million per year, but because it airs fewer games now. Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox’s contracts increased by $170 million and $228 million, respectively. And Apple wasn’t a player at all prior to the MLB’s current deal; like other leagues, it added a streaming-only partner.

What you need to know:

The MLB struck a deal earlier this year with The Roku Channel for $30 million over three years to stream Sunday early games, the first such deal between a major league and a free ad-supported streaming television platform.

What the experts say:

“Casting a wider net to audiences that aren’t restricted to content behind a paywall breaks down barriers,” Katina Papas Wachter, Roku’s head of integrated brand partnerships, previously told The Current. “The larger the audience opportunity, the higher the chance to find new customers and drive lower-funnel performance. Being able to measure this impact will be one of the many benefits of this partnership.”

Where the rights stand:

The NBA’s new deal with Disney’s ESPN, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon’s Prime Video will start with the 2025–2026 season. It’s valued at $76 billion over 11 years. ESPN gets 80 games per season — NBC and Peacock up to 100 and Amazon 66 regular season games.

How it compares to the previous deal:

The NBA’s current deal, which expires after this coming season, is worth $24 billion — a third of the new total. It was with ESPN and TNT, now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The latter lost out on the most recent renewal, though the company is suing the NBA after the league rejected its effort to match the Prime Video package.

What you need to know:

The WNBA’s new deal — which was negotiated by the NBA and includes the same partners and time frame — also skyrocketed from $50 million per year to $200 million, amid record viewership and booming popularity for women’s sports in general. It’s resulted in gains for advertisers, too: according to research from Edo, ads during the first month of this WNBA season were 26% more likely to drive consumer engagement than last year. Bottom line: The growth has encouraged more brands and agencies to invest more in women’s sports; a Deloitte report from last year projected women’s sports to generate $1 billion in revenue for the first time. GroupM, for instance, wants to double its commitment to women’s sports this year.

What the experts say:

“If you look at it from a league point of view today, the two places you can reach new fans — typically younger people — are streaming and broadcast [because it is free and available to all households],” Miller, the Integrated Media CEO, told THR.

Where the rights stand:

The NFL’s current deal began last season and runs through the 2033 season. It included renewals with broadcast networks NBC and CBS, which simulcast games on Peacock and Paramount+, respectively, as well as Fox. ESPN also reupped for Monday Night Football, which simulcasts on ESPN+. The league added its first streaming-only package with Amazon Prime Video, which streams Thursday Night Football (TNF). The entire deal was worth $110 billion over 11 years, or $10 billion a year.

How it compares to the previous deal:

The NFL’s current deal is nearly double what it was worth previously at $5.6 billion per year. It didn’t include Amazon, which is paying $1 billion a year for TNF.

What you need to know:

The NFL has been busy striking deals outside of its main rights packages, including a Peacock-exclusive opening-weekend game this season, the first played in Brazil. Peacock, along with Prime Video, will also stream exclusive playoff games this season (Peacock’s exclusive playoff game this past season was the most-streamed live event in U.S. history).

The biggest example this season, though, might be that Netflix will stream two Christmas Day games this year, marking the first time the streamer has partnered with one of the major sports leagues for live games (it will stream WWE’s Monday Night Raw starting in 2025). CBS Sports will produce the Christmas games.

What the experts say:

“I believe Netflix is observing the landscape,” Anthony Amey, a professor of practice of sports media at Virginia Tech, speculates. “It wisely bought itself time to do so and announced itself as a potential threat to poach more rights at a later time by buying the rights to those NFL games specifically.”

Where the rights stand:

The NHL’s most recent agreements are very streaming-heavy. Disney’s ESPN and Hulu gained 75 exclusive regular-season games in a seven-year deal that began in 2021; it marked a return to ESPN for the NHL after 16 years. ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro said of the deal after it was announced that streaming is “at the heart of this deal.” As part of the agreement, ESPN+ became the new home of 1,000 out-of-market NHL games. Disney is paying the league about $400 million a year, according to The New York Times.

Separately, what was then WarnerMedia (now Warner Bros. Discovery) struck its own seven-year deal worth over $225 million a year in 2021 to air 72 regular-season games on TNT and TBS, which would simulcast on HBO Max (now Max).

How it compares to the previous deal:

NBC’s 10-year agreement with the NHL, which was worth $2 billion total, expired in 2021. The new deals with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, when combined, more than double that.

What you need to know:

Several NHL teams have parted ways with Diamond Sports Group, owner of many regional sports networks across the U.S., as Diamond is under bankruptcy protection since last year. Some of those teams, including the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars, have launched streaming platforms to air games that aren’t nationally televised (Diamond recently reached a deal with the NBA and NHL, though it’s awaiting approval from a bankruptcy judge).

What the experts say:

“A lot of NHL, NBA and MLB teams are at a pivotal time right now in terms of local rights distribution,” says Scott Robson, a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. “The RSNs [regional sports networks] have provided a steady stream of income to the teams for the past few decades and that’s being challenged.”

Where the rights stand:

All MLS matches stream live on Apple TV+ as part of a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal that began last year. (Some simulcasts also air on the Fox Sports network as part of a separate agreement that ends in 2026.) The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) struck a $240 million, four-year deal with ESPN, CBS, Scripps Sports and Amazon Prime Video last year; all ESPN matches are available on ESPN+ and CBS matches also stream on Paramount+.

How it compares to previous deals:

The most recent MLS broadcast deals are the first time that ESPN isn’t airing any games in the league’s history. Prior to the Apple agreement, ESPN and Fox were paying a combined $75 million a year; Apple is now paying $250 million annually.

As for the NWSL, the new deal is an enormous increase over the $4.5 million agreement the league previously had with CBS.

What you need to know:

Soccer has grown in popularity in the U.S. in recent years, especially England’s Premier League, which airs on NBC and Peacock, and is seeing record viewership in the U.S. Further, the women’s soccer match during this year’s Olympics, in which the U.S. team beat Brazil, was the most-watched gold medal Olympic soccer match in 20 years. The rise in popularity surely has a lot to do with streaming, and it will culminate with the FIFA World Cup coming to the U.S. in 2026, along with Canada and Mexico.

What the experts say:

“The World Cup’s going to be incredible, but it’s going to come and go,” MLS’ VP of Brand Marketing Jesse Perl previously told The Current Podcast, regarding the importance of capitalizing on World Cup fever after the event.

“There’s going be a lot of people here [in the U.S.] that aren’t going to be able to make it to World Cup games that maybe wanted to or maybe wanted to take their kids to it, or [they] got priced out, or there’s only so many seats in so many games,” Perl said. “And for MLS to really make sure everybody knows where they can find us [and] how they can find us, again, I think to meet that moment is going to be the big unlock for us.”

Illustrations by Nick DeSantis / Getty / Shutterstock / The Current