Changes to the media landscape – Ahead of the Game: Sports Horizon Scanning 2026

The media landscape is undergoing an intriguing transformation, driven by developing technologies and changes in consumer tastes and consumption. This transformation is likely to bring both challenges and opportunities as we move through 2026 and beyond.

Traditional media consumption shows signs of stagnation, pressured by the affordability and flexibility of streaming platforms and social media. Deloitte reports that only 49% of consumers now have a cable or satellite TV subscription, a sharp drop from 63% just three years ago. The decline is most evident in live TV viewing, which has fallen dramatically. Gen Z, in particular, spends far less time watching traditional television, favouring social platforms and shortform content instead.

Yet, live sports remain a bright spot. While the steep rights fee increases seen in recent years have largely plateaued, sports continue to be a strategic asset for both traditional broadcasters and streaming services, driving subscriptions and reducing churn (the rate at which users cancel services). With more players entering the market for sports content, this could lead to some significant developments in the year ahead.

Key developments and predictions for 2026

New entrants, mergers and consolidations 

2025 closed with the news that Paramount was entering the UK sports streaming market, winning the rights to show UEFA Champions League games in the UK for four years starting in 2027. Rights holders will be watching closely to see whether this signals a broader push to expand sports coverage beyond the USA.

Rights holders will be similarly interested to see if any of the other major international media organisations will increase their sports offerings. Amazon has previously acquired a selection of rights covering the UEFA Champions League and Premier League football, alongside international rugby and ATP Tour tennis matches. DAZN already has a strong portfolio of rights in many markets, and it remains to be seen if the recent minority investment by Saudi Arabia’s SURJ Sports Investment will lead to further expansion. Netflix has dipped its toes into the water with live WWE wrestling, celebrity boxing (such as Jake Paul’s bouts with Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua) and recently reported that its live coverage of the Christmas Day NFL match between the Lions and Vikings was the most streamed NFL game in US history.

Alongside these developments, the wave of mergers and consolidations in the media industry shows no signs of slowing. Netflix has agreed to acquire Warner Bros’ film and television business, though a rival bid from Paramount could reshape the deal. Paramount already owns Channel 5 in the UK, while Sky has been linked to a potential acquisition of ITV. This heightened merger activity suggests broadcasters and streamers will seek greater flexibility in how they exploit sports rights, potentially acquiring packages that span both pay-TV and free-to-air platforms to maximise the value of their expanded portfolios.

Diversification in distribution strategies

To stay ahead of changes in media consumption, particularly amongst younger demographics, we expect to see a continued trend towards diversified distribution strategies, including partnerships with social media services. Gen-Z and millennial audiences increasingly consume content on these platforms and so we anticipate rights holders will continue to turn to hybrid distribution models – making content available through a mixture of traditional pay and FTA television services, streaming services and social media – as well as exploring shorter content formats and documentaries (both in relation to sporting action and to content created away from the pitch).

Some sports have been developing their own dedicated direct-to consumer (DTC) offerings. World Rugby launched RugbyPass TV in advance of the 2023 Rugby World Cup to bring live content to ‘dark’ markets where there was no other televised coverage and provide other archive content and original programming to rugby fans on a global basis.

In 2025 Ligue 1 became the first major men’s football league in Europe to launch its own DTC streaming service for live coverage in its domestic market, Ligue 1+, after failing to establish a successful broadcast partnership for all of its matches. Ligue 1 subsequently expanded the coverage of its service into the UK and Italy, and in January 2026 announced a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille would become the first European football match to feature live AI-translated commentary (with the French commentary being translated into Italian). However, broadcast revenues are reportedly significantly down on previous seasons, demonstrating that for now the optimum path for many rights holders may be to supplement third party broadcast coverage in their domestic and other primary markets with DTC coverage in markets where they are not able to attract a favourable broadcast partner.

Another developing option for rights holders comes from the rise of FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) channels, such as Paramount’s PlutoTV, and Fox’s Tubi. In 2023 DAZN launched a dedicated FAST channel for women’s sports in Germany, featuring content from the Frauen Bundesliga (Germany), Primera Division (Spain) and Division 1 Feminine (France) and the Women’s UEFA Champions League. In August 2024 Sky Sports launched its own first FAST channels, with Sky Sports Stories offering documentaries, Sky Sports Classics showing Premier League archive content, and Sky Sports Vault serving classic footage from other sports. May 2024 also saw a major sports body embrace FAST services, with the US launch of the Formula 1 Channel, bringing viewers a range of highlights, analysis, classic Grand Prix races and documentaries. We expect this trend to continue into next year, although with content primarily being repeats and highlights and magazine programming, rather than live coverage.

We also expect both and rights holders and broadcasters will continue to engage more heavily in partnerships with social media influencers and creators as part of their core promotion strategies. The Deloitte media trends survey reports that 56% of younger generations watch content on streaming services after having heard about them from online creators and 63% of Gen-Z and 49% of millennials say that social media ads and product reviews are the most influential to their purchasing decisions. Cristiano Ronaldo is an example of an athlete taking this one step further – streaming live coverage of the Premier Padel semi-finals and finals on his official YouTube account, complementing the coverage from more traditional broadcasters.

We anticipate YouTube itself will remain a key distribution platform for rights holders, offering a platform to reach a mass global audience without the need to invest in producing and maintaining their own DTC service. The fact that YouTube has publicly ruled out bidding for any sports media rights itself also makes it an attractive platform for broadcasters to use to distribute their content to a wider network. The popularity of YouTube also helps address another emerging issue facing sports rights holders – discoverability. Where rights holders grant rights to a wider range of platforms the more casual fan can find it increasingly hard to identify where to watch coverage of their desired sporting event, and YouTube is positioning itself as the primary platform for finding all content in one place – whether match action, magazine programming or creator-driven content. 

Amendments to the listed events requirement in the UK 

Whilst a large proportion of sports media rights analysis tends to focus on the emergence of streaming services, free to air broadcasters will remain the home for a large amount ofpremium sporting content. In the EU and UK, this is in part due to the ‘listed events’ regime, which is designed to help ensure that certain sporting or other events of national interest is available to audiences in that country on a free-to-air basis. In the UK, this affects events such as the FIFA World Cup, the Rugby World Cup, the UEFA European Championships and the Olympics.

In the UK the implementation of the Media Act 2024 is set to introduce significant reforms to the UK’s listed events regime, including: (a) the extension of the rules to cover digital platforms as well as traditional broadcast channels; (b) amending the services that benefit from the rules so that these are restricted to the public services broadcasters (e.g. the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) and their online offerings (such as iPlayer); and (c) updating the rules for multi-sport events such as the Olympics to clarify what “adequate live coverage” is required on PSBs.

Technological advancements

Emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are reshaping sports broadcasting, delivering richer data, immersive experiences, and interactive features. Automated production is making previously un-filmed content affordable, with events like Wimbledon and the Masters using generative AI for commentary to expand coverage.

Younger fans, often ‘second screeners’, are driving demand for personalised experiences. Expect broadcasters to offer tailored highlights, custom camera angles, and data-driven features that let viewers follow their favourite teams and players. Rights holders will increasingly partner with tech providers to deliver these innovations and ensure legal agreements allow for the use of player data in these fast-evolving formats.

Piracy enforcement and countermeasures

2025 saw a series of high-profile prosecutions and arrests for roles within illegal sports-streaming and the battle against streaming piracy is likely to intensify, both in relation to illegal streaming devices and infringing websites and apps. Amazon and Google are rolling out new systems that seek to block unauthorised or ‘sideloaded’ apps that are identified as providing access to pirated content. We also anticipate that a range of rights holders will continue to work with social media services to identify and takedown infringing content, and to seek live blocking injunctions to combat the more prolific illegal streaming sites.

To read the full report for Ahead of the Game: Sports Horizon Scanning 2026, click here.