Who owns the screen owns the game

TV money is the biggest revenue line in professional sport. Whoever pays for the pictures shapes schedules, competitions and, more and more, who owns the clubs.

In 2026, global sports media rights hit a record $65.8 billion, up 15% in a year, according to the SportBusiness Global Media Report. The World Cup, the Winter Olympics and new NBA and UFC deals drove the rise.

The money is concentrated. The US takes 53.9% of global rights value, and the NFL and NBA alone 30%. The Premier League is the only non-US property near the top, at 7.8%.

Plain-language note: "media rights" are what a league sells to broadcasters for the right to show its matches. The broadcaster earns that money back through subscriptions and advertising.

In 1992, Sky paid £304m for five seasons of the new Premier League, about £61m a season. From 2025, Sky and TNT Sports pay £6.7bn for four seasons, about £1.675bn a season. Figures not adjusted for inflation.

A few buyers now decide where much of the world watches its sport. Two of them carry the Gulf rivalry onto the screen.

Streamers will spend $14.2bn on sports rights in 2026, according to an Ampere Analysis forecast. Amazon now outspends DAZN, the streamer built only for sport.

French rugby depends on one buyer. Canal+ is the only bidder for the Top 14 and Pro D2, at about €140m a season, and TV rights are close to two-thirds of the league's revenue.

The government's 2027 budget planned to double VAT on pay-TV, from 10% to 20%. Canal+ said it could cost it up to €200m a year. On 2 November, the National Assembly deleted the VAT rise, 45 votes to 15. It is not over: the Senate can still bring it back before the budget is final.

Football shows what happens when the buyer walks away. DAZN left Ligue 1 after one season in May 2025, paying €100m to exit plus €140m still owed. The league launched its own channel, Ligue 1+. Angers expected about $22m a year under DAZN; it now projects about $3.5m.

How does a broadcaster buy rights in the first place? Sport Business 101 →

The rivalry between Gulf states does not stop at the stadium. It runs through the channels that show the games.

A pirate channel. In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar. Soon after, a Saudi-based channel, beoutQ¹, started rebroadcasting Qatari beIN's sport on a mass scale.

A verdict. In June 2020, the WTO ruled that the Saudi state had promoted and supported beoutQ. A month later, beIN's licence in Saudi Arabia was permanently cancelled.

Another route. In 2025, Saudi Arabia bought into a broadcaster instead: PIF's sports arm SURJ invested about $1bn in DAZN, which competes with beIN across the Middle East.

The same names, everywhere. beIN's chairman also runs PSG, and beIN took France's World Cup rights from the French league's own channel.

¹ beoutQ: a pirate service that took beIN's signal and sold its own subscriptions and decoders in Saudi Arabia. Source: WTO ruling, case DS567, June 2020.

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