In the past week there have been two analyses that report globally and domestically the number of live sporting events on streaming services has been rapidly escalating. Earlier today Gracenote, a content data business unit of Nielsen, issued a report showing significant growth in streaming sports programming over the last quarter. The study analyzed five major SVOD services. Last week, a study from Ampere Analytics found that this year streaming services will account for one-fifth of global sports rights spend, reaching over $12 billion.

Gracenote: For its study Gracenote included Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+. Since October 2024, the five providers had increased sports programs by more than 72. In its analysis Gracenote found four of the SVOD providers had increased their sports content. Disney+ led with an increase of +471% followed by Netflix which nearly doubled their sports outlay. Among the five, only Apple TV+ failed to increase its sports commitment for the quarter. Gracenote noted that Apple TV+ will be increasing their sports commitment with a new MLS season now underway and the return of MLB in March.

In a press release Bill Michels, Chief Product Officer at Gracenote noted, “Live sports programming continues to be an important driver of user growth, retention and engagement for streaming services. We are also seeing that relevant metadata, such as synopses, scores, highlights and imagery have the power to help streamers build world-class user experiences that keep users engaged beyond the live game.”

Gracenote’s analysis also noted:

• The increase in content across global SVOD services includes approximately 3,000 movies, 2,000 TV shows and 500 sports shows.
• On a quarter-over-quarter basis, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ have added +6.7% more content to their catalogs, with increases of +5.4% and +7.6% for TV and movies, respectively.
• A dramatic increase in sports programming on Disney+ is largely the result of adding select ESPN programming. Disney+ now accounts for nearly one-third of sports programming, trailing only Amazon at 35%. Netflix accounts for nearly one-quarter of sports programming.
• Prime Video continues to be the largest video content distributor. Gracenote found Amazon accounted for 69% of available programming, compared to 67.8% in first quarter 2024.

Looking globally, Gracenote reported a notable increase in French content with a sizable drop-off in content from India. France is now the third largest producer at 5.6% of total programming. Also, despite the growth in sports, drama programming continues to be the most popular genre. Among the five SVOD services the lone outlier is Disney+. At Disney+ drama lags behind documentary, comedy, children and adventure.

Gracenote’s program metadata covers more than 40 million tiles across 260+ streaming catalogs in 35 languages and 80+ countries. Data comes from Gracenote’s Data Hub which provides a snapshot of global SVOD programming to identify content trends and changes over time.

Ampere Analytics: Last week Ampere Analytics released a report that found streaming providers will spend $12.5 billion in sports rights in 2025. This year sports will account for 20% of total sports spending (of $64 billion), up from 8% in 2021. In 2024 sports accounted for 18% of all sports spending. When broken out by SVOD provider, DAZN continues to be the leading spender on streaming sports rights with a 33% share, followed by Prime Video at 23%, YouTube TV at 16% and Netflix at 5%. The remaining 22% are divided among various other SVOD services.

Of the report, Danni Moore, a senior analyst at Ampere said, “Over the last five years, streamers’ share of investment in sports rights has increased for two main reasons. The first is the growth of DAZN as a specialist sport streamer. In particular, DAZN has driven investment in top tier sports rights in major European markets such as Germany, Italy, Spain and most recently France.”

Moore added, “Then, as streaming nears saturation point, general entertainment platforms are adjusting their content investment strategies and have turned to sports as a key part of their subscription growth plans. They are recognizing the benefit of acquiring rights to major season-long competitions for both subscriber acquisition and retention. Netflix, Peacock and Paramount all saw the commercial value of acquiring key sporting tournaments and one-off events in 2024, and we expect more of the same in 2025.”

The Ampere report cited the continued global dominance of the London-based DAZN citing the $1 billion deal for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. DAZN has also been active in acquiring the rights of major sporting events across prominent European markets. In addition, DAZN is finalizing its acquisition of Foxtel in Australia.

With the acquisition of NBA rights, in 2025 Amazon’s share increased to 23% from 18% last year. Over the 11-year NBA contact, Amazon is reportedly paying about $20 billion. YouTube TV with a $2 billion annual agreement to stream NFL Sunday Ticket, ranks third overall. With Netflix streaming NFL games on Christmas until at least 2026 and now streaming WWE Raw ($5 billion over 10 years), from USA Network is now fourth.

In its analysis Ampere noted how sports have been instrumental in driving subscriber counts. For example, in 2024, Paramount+ added 2.4 million subscribers for their Super Bowl LVIII coverage in February. The previous month an NFL Wild Card playoff game, streamed exclusively by Peacock, added two million customers. In November, the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul boxing match on Netflix added 1.5 million U.S. subscribers. With a Christmas Day doubleheader Netflix added another 700,000 new subs. The success of premium sports in attracting subscribers in a competitive streaming landscape is expected to continue in 2025.

In 2025 there is speculation Netflix is interested in acquiring the U.S. rights for Formula 1 auto racing and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Netflix could also bid on the top TV rated regular season NFL games on Sunday afternoon in 2029. With ESPN no longer televising MLB games after the 2025 season an SVOD provider could pick up the rights. In any event, as more sports migrate to streaming platforms, the monthly subscriber costs will continue to spiral upward.