Streaming apps now pay half of Asia's sports rights: what it means
A new Media Partners Asia report says apps like JioHotstar now pay half of Asia's sports rights fees. The fast rise in those fees is set to slow down sharply.
Daily Digital India Desk
Published · 3 min read
If you now watch most of your cricket on a phone app and not on a TV channel, you are part of a big change across Asia. A new report from the consultancy Media Partners Asia (MPA) says streaming services will pay half of all sports broadcast rights fees in the region this year. In 2021, their share was about 36%.
The report puts total sports rights fees in Asia at about $5.7 billion for 2026. Some headlines round this up to "$6 billion". It is the same estimate.
The numbers in one table
| What MPA found | Figure |
|---|---|
| Sports rights fees across Asia, 2026 (estimate) | About $5.7 billion |
| Share paid by streaming services, 2026 | 50% |
| Share paid by streaming services, 2021 | About 36% |
| Total rise in rights fees over the past five years | 58% |
| Expected yearly rise until 2030 | Only 1% to 2% |
| IPL rights value per match | About $12.4 million |
| Wider Asian sports economy (tickets, sponsorship, merchandise) | $16.2 billion |
MPA says India drove more than half of the rise in the region's rights fees since 2021. It also says the IPL is the only sports property in Asia priced at the top of the world market. Per match, it earns about as much as England's Premier League football.
What our arithmetic shows
The report gives percentages, so we did some simple maths with its figures. Treat these numbers as rough guides, not official ones.
- If fees grew 58% to reach $5.7 billion, the 2021 total was about $3.6 billion.
- Streamers' 36% share of that comes to about $1.3 billion in 2021.
- Half of $5.7 billion is about $2.85 billion in 2026.
That means streaming apps' sports spending has roughly doubled in five years. Over the same period, spending by TV and other buyers rose by only about a quarter.
Looking ahead, growth of 1% to 2% a year would take the total to only about $5.9 billion to $6.2 billion by 2030. That is a big slowdown after years of steep increases.
Who shows what
The report notes that Asia's big streaming apps have split up the major sports between them:
- JioHotstar in India, run by Reliance Industries and Walt Disney, has cricket.
- Tencent shows NBA basketball and NFL American football to viewers in China.
- MNC Digital Entertainment in Indonesia has Asian Football Confederation matches and the UEFA European Championship.
MPA says streamers now set the price of sports rights in most Asian markets. In other words, the apps decide how much a league or board can get.
Why growth is slowing
The report itself only gives the forecast, not every reason behind it. An earlier MPA report from March, focused on the IPL, gives some background. It said companies holding IPL rights in the current cycle face losses of $1.8 billion to $2 billion in total. It also said advertising revenue growth has slowed to 7% a year over the last three seasons, compared with 18% in the cycle before.
That March report expected IPL media rights to stay flat at about $5.4 billion in the next cycle, from 2028. Per-match figures differ between the two reports. SportsPro, writing about the March report, gave the current IPL value as $13.2 million a match, with a fall to $11.5 million expected in the next cycle. The new report puts it at about $12.4 million. Both come from MPA, but they seem to be measured differently or at different times.
What this means for you
Cricket will stay mostly on apps. The money now comes mainly from streamers, so expect big matches to keep showing up on phone and smart TV apps first.
Watch your subscription total. When sports are spread across several apps, small monthly fees add up. Here is an example with made-up prices: if you pay ₹299 a month for one app and ₹149 for another, that is ₹448 a month, or ₹5,376 a year. Check which tournaments each app actually has before you renew. Pause the ones you don't need in the off-season.
Don't expect any price change from this report. The report forecasts slower growth in what streamers pay for rights. It says nothing about what you will pay for a plan.
Avoid "free cricket" apps from outside the Play Store. Unofficial streaming APKs can carry malware. If you are thinking about installing one, read our seven checks before you tap Install first.
Make room before a big series. Streaming apps and downloaded highlights take up space. If your phone keeps warning you, here is how to free up Android storage without deleting photos.