The Sports Rights Bubble Reaching The Tipping Point

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The 20,000 Foot View: The broadcasting of live sport has been a key part of TV’s appeal and underpins the pay-TV ecosystem. However, a combination of entrenched cord-cutting and an ageing audience means that revenues are now moving out of synch with inflating domestic sports rights costs. In 2016, return on investment (ROI) for the top ten largest TV sports broadcasters declined by on 2014 as the newly increased domestic sports rights costs kicked in. Sports rights investment by US, UK and Canadian domestic broadcasters is now moving from Euphoria into Profit Taking (as per the five stages of an economic bubble) as the smart money start to plan for exit from their pay-TV dependency.
Key Findings
- Rights revenue the US, UK and Canadian sport rights franchises was up 2014 and 2016
- The largest UK and Canada sports broadcasters billion on sports rights in
- ROI for sports rights in the US, and Canada peaked in 2015 a return
- ROI on sports rights declined by between and 2016 in the US, and Canada
- New entrants and Facebook will initially push costs up further but they subsequently exercise market power to costs later
-
of sports TV viewers in the US, UK, Canada and Australia are aged plus
- Only of in the US, UK, Canada Australia regularly watch sports on
- Cord-cutting penetration US, UK, Canada and Australia in 2017
Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Century Fox, ABC, Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, BT, CBS, Facebook, Fox Sports, NBA, NBCUniversal, NFC, NFL, The Walt Disney Company, Rogers Communications, Sky Plc, Turner Entertainment Networks, Twitch, Twitter