With more professional sports leagues turning from traditional TV to streaming for live coverage, sports rights owners need to do a better job of adapting to new media technologies and strategies.
That’s according to Altman Solon’s 2023 Global Sports Survey, which queried more than 2,500 sports fans and 150 top executives from eight major global markets, and found that 85% of industry leaders believe that rights owners are not actively addressing the changing needs of their media partners.
“Changes in fan viewing habits and new streaming competitors have sent the sports media industry into a state of flux,” said Altman Solon Director Matt Del Percio. “While the major U.S. sports leagues are operating under blockbuster deals with the networks and streamers, some of their European counterparts have experienced some pull back. The leagues that create flexible, performance-based rights deals that address the industry flux will be more competitive over the longer term.”
Del Percio highlighted Major League Soccer’s new 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple TV, which factors potential upside based on subscriber growth, as a model for future rights deals. When it comes to signing rights deals, 65% of sports executives said rights owners should lengthen media cycles and focus on long-term partnerships with performance-based variables.
The survey also found that when it comes to promoting the internal offerings of direct to consumer (DTC) streaming services vs. those of rights licensing/supporting existing partners, execs slightly favor traditional, 53-47% with nearly the same number (53-46) supporting empowering traditional broadcasters and their transition to streaming vs. pure streamers (i.e. Apple, Amazon Prime or Netflix).
The survey also found that fans of tier 1 sports leagues (European football, U.S major leagues) are willing to pay ~$20-25 per month to pay for access to live games and that 58% of surveyed rights owners prefer to improve and innovate core product over optimizing media and commercial models.
This year’s survey for the first time included a poll of more than 150 global sports media executives to understand the priorities and solutions for a changing industry. In October, Altman Solon released data on global sports fans’ changing viewing habits.
