Booming sports-rights market may be hitting the brakes

According to Caretta Research, the sports-rights market may be hitting the brakes and it looks like a scramble for new revenue is already underway. Caretta Research, which has joined SVG as a Corporate Sponsor, provides market sizing, competitive intelligence, positioning analysis, and custom research for technology vendors and media companies across the sports, advertising, and media sectors – helping clients make data-driven business decisions.

Research Analyst Evangelos Vrysellas outlines a sports-rights market entering a period of financial deceleration, with revenue growth failing to keep pace with escalating rights costs and overall media-market growth slowing significantly through 2030. He notes that long-term rights agreements for major U.S. leagues have effectively locked in revenues until the early-to-mid 2030s, while domestic market saturation adds further pressure — trends that temporary spikes from the World Cup and Olympics can mask.

He points to direct-to-consumer platforms as an increasingly essential hedge, citing the Premier League, UEFA, and Germany’s football association as organizations exploring their own streaming services. To reduce reliance on media-rights revenue, Vrysellas argues, leagues must diversify income streams and build year-round fan-engagement ecosystems grounded in high-quality data. Looking ahead, he predicts AI-powered production tools — particularly automated highlights and clip generation — and cloud-based workflows will play a growing role.