Streamers Spend $6.5B on US Sports Rights in 2025

Streaming platforms are rapidly transforming the sports media landscape, allocating billions of dollars to secure live event rights. In 2025, streamers are projected to spend $6.5 billion on sports rights specifically for US audiences. This aggressive spending is led by Amazon and YouTube TV, which together account for 65% of the total expenditure.

The landscape shift is visible in major events like the NFL Christmas games, which moved to Netflix and Amazon in 2024. While traditional broadcasters remain the largest buyers, streamers are increasing their market share. This trend raises concerns about the future budget for film and television production, as the rising cost of sports rights consumes a larger portion of content budgets.

According to data from Ampere Analysis, streamers are dedicating significant capital to capture sports viewership. The total projected spending for US sports rights in 2025 is $6.5 billion. The market share breakdown reveals a clear hierarchy among the tech giants.

Amazon and YouTube TV dominate the sector, collectively holding 65% of the spending share. Specifically, Amazon accounts for 34.4% and YouTube TV accounts for 30.6%. Netflix has entered the market aggressively, securing the third-largest share at 11.3%.

Following the top three are Disney's ESPN+ and Comcast's Peacock, which hold distant fourth and fifth places, respectively. This concentration of spending highlights the intense competition among platforms to secure exclusive live content.

The specific investments made by these companies illustrate their commitment:

• Amazon paid $11 billion for NFL Thursday Night Football and $19.8 billion for NBA rights.
• YouTube paid $14 billion to secure NFL "Sunday Ticket" rights.
• Netflix acquired NFL Christmas Day games and the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight.

While Amazon and YouTube have pursued full seasons of sports rights, Netflix is taking a different approach. The company treats sports as part of a broader live events strategy, which includes comedy specials and awards shows. Netflix prefers this method over "renting" full seasons of sports rights.

There is a discrepancy in reported spending figures for Netflix. Ampere Analysis calculated Netflix's sports spending at $738 million. However, a person familiar with the company's finances pegged the figure at approximately $600 million.

It is important to note that Ampere's data has specific limitations. The measurements cover eight platforms but exclude spending for rights distributed internationally. For example, it does not include Amazon's spending on NFL rights outside the US or on the UEFA Men's Champions League in the UK. Additionally, the data excludes DAZN's acquisition of the global FIFA Club World Cup 2025 rights, valued at $1 billion.

Despite the rapid growth of streaming, traditional broadcasters remain the largest buyers of sports rights in the United States. In 2025, nearly half of US broadcasters' content spending—totaling $24 billion—was allocated to sports rights, representing 47% of their budgets.

For streamers, sports currently represent a smaller but growing portion of their spending. In 2025, 10% of streamers' overall content budgets went to sports, a significant increase from 6% in 2024. Even for Amazon, sports accounted for about 19% of its content spending, approaching the amount it spends on movies.

The primary motivation for streamers is audience retention. Sports help platforms grow engagement and keep subscribers from cancelling. However, the escalating cost of sports rights creates a trade-off. There is less money available for film and TV output in an already stagnating entertainment ecosystem. Since the end of "Peak TV" in 2022, the industry has been producing fewer shows.

Executives from major companies have justified the high costs by pointing to the value of sports. Disney announced plans to spend $24 billion in the next fiscal year, driven largely by sports rights. CFO Hugh Johnston justified a more than 73% increase in the NBA deal by citing value to audiences and advertisers, despite the cost creating "a little bit of bumpiness during the course of the year."

Netflix also compared its recent NFL deal to the cost of its movies, which it has been making fewer of. Netflix executive Spencer Wang stated that each game is "roughly the size of one of our medium-sized original films."

The trend toward streaming sports is expected to accelerate. Ampere Analysis forecasts that global spending on sports rights will increase by 20% to $78 billion worldwide by 2030. The US market will drive this growth, with new NBA and MLB rights becoming available in the coming years. NFL negotiations for the next round of media rights could begin as early as 2026. Meanwhile, YouTube TV continues to expand its sports offerings, recently announcing a new sports bundle priced lower than its regular $83-per-month service.