Streaming services will spend $14.2 billion on sports rights in 2026, with Amazon’s Prime Video expected to lead the pack, according to a new forecast from Ampere Analysis.
The forecasted spend, based on deals agreed to date for the year, would be a 7% increase from $13.2 billion spent in 2025. Ampere estimates that Prime Video would account for 27% of the total spend with an investment of $3.8 billion, overtaking British sports streamer DAZN for the first time by more than half a billion dollars.
DAZN, which has been the top spender since 2018 per the firm, would account for 22% of 2026 spend, followed by YouTube TV (14%), Paramount (8%) and Netflix (5%), while the remaining 23% would be made up by other services.
In 2025, DAZN boosted streaming investment with a $1 billion deal for the FIFA Men’s Club World Cup, a competition which does not take place in 2026.
Amazon’s lead over DAZN is driven in part by the first full year of its 11-year NBA deal, worth $1.8 billion per season, as well as its existing major rights for NFL Thursday Night Football in the U.S. and the UEFA Champions League in Germany, Italy and the U.K. Meanwhile, Paramount enters the top five streaming spenders following its $1.1 billion per year UFC deal in the U.S.
“These rights give Amazon a year-round live sports portfolio in the US, including the two most popular domestic leagues – the NFL and NBA – allowing it not only to attract new subscribers but to retain them too. The growing importance of live sport in driving subscriber acquisition and retention, and in maximising ad-tier revenue, has encouraged generalist streamers like Amazon Prime Video to become increasingly active in acquiring sports rights,”Ampere Sports senior analyst Danni Moore said in a statement. “As a result, these streamers will increasingly provide tough competition for DAZN in acquiring top-tier rights, as we’ve seen with the platform losing out to Paramount+ in the latest UEFA Champions League rights tender in Germany.”
Overall, these “global generalist streamers” — Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+ — will account for 44% of total streaming spend on sports rights in 2026, up from 31% in 2025, per Ampere.
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