Media rights in sports have exponentially grown worldwide, as competitions pull billions in revenue. Soccer has been one of the driving forces for that. The sport’s continued growth has seen American broadcasters toss more cash around to attract more viewers. For example, NBC is paying the English Premier League $433 million per year for six years. That equates to $2.6 billion throughout the deal.
The Premier League tops the list in terms of broadcast rights deals for soccer in the United States. The disparity is large, but other sports leagues have drawn in strong deals from American broadcasters. ESPN is paying $175 million annually to air LaLiga in the United States. CBS’s three-year deal to broadcast Serie A, which expired after the 2023/24, cost $75 million annually. Previous reports indicated ESPN was paying $30 million annually for the Bundesliga.
Global popularity of soccer is certainly stronger than it is of American sports. However, the inflated nature of the American sports media market has made those rights deals far more expensive on average than their European counterparts. Moreover, the Premier League, despite its massive deals from different countries’ broadcasters, is not the league with the most revenue from combinations of sports media rights. That belongs to the National Football League, which is one of three American sports leagues to crack the top four in terms of revenue. Research firm Ampere Analysis organized the combination of domestic and international media rights to show which leagues make the most money.
Soccer is, fittingly, the most consistent of the sports listed in the top 10 leagues with the most revenue from media rights. Four of the competitions in the top 10 play soccer, with each of the other competitions in the top six being the only representative of those sports.
Despite having a predominantly American audience, the NFL’s media rights have not slowed down. Instead, the league’s media rights deals have grown faster than any other competition. Each year, the NFL makes $12.39 billion strictly from American broadcasters. Having six broadcasters in the deal certainly helps competition, but the NFL’s widespread popularity in the United States stands out.
It is a stark difference from soccer in the sense that American sports generally do not court major international rights deals. Only the NBA can come into the conversation for international rights deals. The Premier League makes more from its international rights deals than it does from domestic agreements. Even then, the Premier League signed its most lucrative domestic rights deal in history by pulling in over $2 billion per year. LaLiga, the Bundesliga and Serie A also make a strong portion of money from international partners. LaLiga makes almost half of its revenue from international deals.
The Indian Premier League also making just a fraction of its revenue from international deals shows that this is not specifically an American tendency. India and the United States have significantly larger populations than England, Spain, Germany and Italy. It is not surprising to see a global audience for those leagues make up a significant portion of their revenue.
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