Rate of growth for clips and highlights to outstrip live – five-year projections

Using its proprietary media-modelling techniques, developed helping over 100 of the world’s leading sports properties drive commercial growth through their digital assets, Two Circles projects the global sports media rights market will be worth $60.9bn in 2024 – up from $48.2bn in 2019, a five-year growth rate of 29%.

During this period, the value of live rights will grow at a rate of 18.7% to hit $49.1bn in 2024. However, in-play clips rights will grow at a rate of 76% to hit $1.7bn, while short-form highlights rights will grow at a rate of 101% to hit $3.2bn, across the same period.

This growth is due to properties capitalizing on changes in media consumption habits to create and license new packages of short-form sports action. Though in 2019 live rights account for 86% of the value received by properties, according to Two Circles the average sports fan¹ only consumes 55% of their sports video content live – a proportion that is set to fall to 53% in 2024.

Value of sports media rights globally ($bn)

Time spent by the average sports fan consuming sports video content (2019)

Gareth Balch, Two Circles CEO, said: “Sport is the last bastion of live entertainment, as we see repeatedly through its ability to create moments that make the world stand still. As the world’s population and average wealth rises, live sports will continue to be a valuable entertainment platform that people will pay to watch, and brands pay to advertize around.

“However, sports fans want to complement live viewing with content they can watch on-demand in a format that suits their day-to-day lives, or see the key moments of action as they happen if they cannot commit to an entire live game. There is huge unrealized commercial value here, which sports properties are beginning to capitalize on through new content packages and evolved relationships with media partners.”

¹ Sports fans in the world’s 80 highest-income territories, per The World Bank definition.

Definitions:

• Live: Live sports event coverage
• In-Play Clips: Short-form clips of sports action, distributed in near-real-time in parallel with live coverage
• Short-Form Highlights: Time-delayed highlights of sports action under 10-minutes long
• Long-Form Highlights: Time-delayed highlights of sports action over 10-minutes long
• Off-Field Content: Documentaries, interviews and analysis.