Capital and Governance
Media rights: the long contracts that pay for the game
Eleven years in basketball, four in English football, five for a motorsport series moving to streaming. What the new contracts say about where audiences and money are going.
Media rights remain the single largest source of income for the biggest properties in sport, and the contracts signed in the last three years are longer, larger and more digital than any before them.
The new contracts
- Basketball: the NBA's agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon run eleven seasons, from 2025-26 to 2035-36. The league did not publish the value; it is reported at about 77 billion dollars.
- English football: the Premier League's UK live rights for 2025/26 to 2028/29 total 6.7 billion pounds, the league's own figure.
- American football: the NFL's current cycle, signed in 2021 with five partners, runs to the 2033 season and is reported at about 110 billion dollars.
- Motorsport: Formula 1's United States rights move to Apple from 2026 for five years, reported at about 140 million dollars a year.
What the contracts say
Three things. Rights holders lock in revenue for a decade. Streaming platforms now sit beside broadcasters at the top table. And every party needs more data, more production and more ways to reach fans between games, which is where the rest of the sport economy earns.
Why it matters at the Forum
Day 1 asks where capital flows and at what returns; media rights are the collateral behind much of it. Day 2 and Day 3 are about the production and technology those contracts now require.
Sources and further reading
- NBA, media agreements (24 July 2024)
- TV Technology, NBA deal value as reported (25 July 2024)
- Premier League, UK rights 2025/26 to 2028/29 (4 December 2023)
- Sports Video Group, NFL rights through 2033 (18 March 2021)
- Axios, Formula 1 US rights to Apple (17 October 2025)
Photograph: Pexels, licensed. No person shown is connected with the Forum.
