Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) are not alone in being caught up in the global disruption sweeping through top tier sports, both in terms of rights allocations and viewing habits by diehard fans, as well as more casual onlookers. The major streamers are also being afflicted as major sporting leagues seek a tighter rein over their rights in order to maximize audience reach as well as revenues.

There are, however, signs of some longer-term stability returning with rights negotiations for various sporting leagues in a few years’ time, although this also means PSBs and other Free To Air (FTA) service providers will have to ensure they have a stake in the new order if they are to capitalize and monetize. As part of this strategy, broadcasters have been seeking partnerships with each other, as well as with streamers and leagues themselves, while also capitalizing on their position as FTA custodians of major sporting events in their countries. Such events include the forthcoming FIFA 2026 World Cup, and the 2028 Olympic Games, as well as other recurring events such as tennis Grand Slams.

There are naturally significant differences in approaches to TV rights between major sports, with golf being one that has sought to maximize revenues from subscription pay TV and pay per view for some individual events. But there has been growing kickback against fencing major sports off entirely behind paywalls, especially those below the very top tier. This is in line with growing evidence that in the longer term both live attendance and TV revenues are maximized through an appropriate balance between paid and FTA viewing.

Growing Reach With FTA

This trend may have started with cricket in the UK, when rights holders Sky made the final of the One-Day World Cup available FTA to Channel 4 in the UK in 2019, as soon as England as the host country made it to the last stage. Earlier matches in the tournament had been confined to Sky’s own customers.

This trend has since been picked up by some sports bodies themselves. LIV Golf, which emerged as a Saudi Arabian-backed breakaway golfing league in 2022, struck a global broadcasting deal with specialist sports streamer DAZN in March 2025, for transmission via its FAST (Free Ad Supported TV) channel LIV Golf+. But at the same time LIV Gold reached a deal with UK commercial broadcaster ITV for FTA coverage in the UK for the 2025 season.

This was motivated in part by competition within the game itself, as LIV Golf sought to gain more converts to its events, as well as expand audience reach for the sport. It also underlines an opportunity for FTA broadcasters to secure a position in a more fragmented world of sports broadcasting, as major leagues or tours seek to spread rights across as many outlets as possible. The leagues will be calling the shots from the high table more than ever before, but at least broadcasters will be well placed to gather a still decent share of the crumbs falling down.

The Big Six

The situation is rather different with the very top leagues, where there is less perceived need to ensure a background level of FTA coverage given that fans are willing to subscribe to relevant sports packages, or in some cases PPV. This certainly applies to the world’s top six as rated by TV rights values, where football (soccer) is the highest revenue generating sport as a whole, and the NFL is the biggest earning single league.

According to Statista.com, NFL earned $10 billion for TV rights globally in 2024, well over double the English Premier League (EPL) in second place on $3.8 billion, followed by the NBA (National Basketball Association) on $2.7 billion, Spain’s La Liga on $2 billion, MLB (Major League Baseball) on $1.8 billion, and the German Bundesliga on $1.4 billion. So, three of the world’s top six leagues are from the USA, and the other three are from European association football.

All six of these leagues to greater or lesser degrees have adopted a common strategy of consolidating their domestic base by spreading out across as many media outlets as possible, while focusing strongly on overseas markets where the greatest growth potential now lies. To some extent their domestic TV rights markets have become saturated, which leaves broadcasters having to scramble to adapt to much more diverse and fragmented distribution. They are contending not just with big established streaming platforms, but also social media and various unconventional outlets led by influencers, as well as the leagues and clubs themselves.

Not surprisingly given its towering position in the US, the NFL is exerting the strongest influence on the TV market and is almost bending it to its will. Rather than becoming a broadcaster in its own right with the conflicts of interest this might bring, the NFL has set about building influence and equity from outside.

This marks a change in strategy away from taking charge of its own TV content production and distribution, as it had been doing with its NFL Network and also RedZone channel, which are both part of NFL Media. RedZone shows so-called whip-around coverage where viewers can follow multiple games simultaneously with a focus on key moments, maximizing action and reducing pauses.

The NFL Network has been going since 2003 with its output available over various US pay TV services, rising to reach 71.1 million US households at its peak in 2015. It has declined steadily over the last decade as a result of cord cutting, down to just over 51 million households now. The network shows game telecasts as well as other NFL-related content, including analysis programs and documentaries.

Direct To Consumer

This decline has helped motivate a change of strategy away from direct control of content transmission, leading to the NFL striking a deal with Disney’s sports media company ESPN in August 2025, under which ESPN assumes control of NFL Network and the RedZone channel. In return NFL takes a 10% stake in ESPN, although regulatory hurdles are unlikely to be cleared at least until well into 2026.

ESPN’s ambition now is to increase the appeal of its Direct To Consumer (DTC) service so that it can gain enough subscribers at prices sufficient to offset the ongoing decline in pay TV households. It also hopes that having locked in the NFL with an equity deal it will be well placed to keep hold of rights to precious NFL games when they come up for renewal.

The NFL for its part is now able to focus on the league itself and leave broadcasting to a company in which it has a stake that may get bigger in the future. Meanwhile, in common with other major leagues, the NFL is preparing to take full control of its rights when they come up for renewal in 2029.

Outside the US, this leaves a number of broadcasters and pay TV operators seeking to capitalize on the rapidly growing popularity of American football in many countries. Sky Sports has been particularly successful on this count in the UK, having in August 2025 extended its long-standing partnership with the NFL in a three-year deal outside the ambit of the ESPN arrangement. Sky Sports will broadcast over half of all NFL games live, but a notable feature of the new deal is that it will also show NFL London and Europe games, including the first ever games in Ireland and Spain.

International Games

This is significant given that staging of events in foreign countries has become key to expansion alongside TV rights for some other major leagues as well. Players may lament the disruption and time involved in traveling, but they are likely to end up earning more as a result of the overall growth.

In association football though there is disagreement over the merits of playing actual league matches abroad, largely arising from fears and protests that this is dismantling the local community aspect by taking games away from fans. At first anyway, Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A approved matches abroad at a low level, while the EPL and Bundesliga have so far declined to do so. This has left individual clubs in England and Germany to play friendly matches abroad, usually preseason, as a way of gaining traction and fandom. 

The Bundesliga has been particularly adamant it will not entertain matches outside Germany but is still just as intent on gaining foreign fans and viewers of games. This presents opportunities for broadcasters, given that the Bundesliga has been radically overhauling its foreign assignments of rights, having made its mark first in the UK. The league announced in August 2025 around the start of the football season that it would offer games FTA as well as subscription and PPV in the UK, while also becoming Europe’s first big football league to give media influencers some premium rights.

Then most recently Barcelona FC announced it was cancelling plans to play a Spanish league match in the US in response to widespread protests from fans of various clubs across the whole of the country. That left Italy out on a limb and the most likely outcome now is that European clubs will restrict such foreign adventures to specially arranged “friendly” non-league games.

The NFL though remains committed to playing league matches abroad and is still expanding that program, offering pickings to broadcasters. In the UK, Sky Sports still shows the biggest game from each round of fixtures on Saturday evenings, while Amazon Prime Video holds exclusive rights to all games aired on a Sunday afternoon. But a notable change is in opening up FTA rights, with the BBC now streaming all Friday night games on iPlayer and the BBC Sport app, alongside the Bundesliga’s official YouTube channel.

The onus then lies in maximizing exposure in order to gain fans, which in turn gives the league a larger target for monetization. FTA coverage has a critical role here alongside YouTube and other social media, as well as these new influencer outlets. Broadcasters need to be ready to tap these opportunities by understanding how their coverage can complement as well as compete with these other outlets.