The world’s top 15 sports leagues will command $66.9 billion in global media rights by 2028, representing an 8.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from this year’s projected $43.8 billion, according to a report from Rethink Research.

Although the costs of sports rights are “clouded by hysteria and hype,” media rights revenues (MRRs) more than doubled between 2014 and 2023, notes Rethink.

The largest 15 leagues will see varying rates of MRR growth over the next five years. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is projected to lead, with a CAGR of 26.3%, to reach $13.5 billion by 2028. Major League Baseball (MLB) will see the slowest growth, at a CAGR of 1.2%.

The report attributes the growth rate to a combination of current streaming and pay-TV industry dynamics.

“More so than any other content vertical, live sports seems to be the definitive means by which our industry values a video service,” it notes. “With live sports comes a captive fanbase that are willing to jump through hoops to watch the games, as well as one or two zeitgeist moments of the calendar year which will draw astonishing traffic to whichever service is playing host.”

At the same time, “desperate” pay-TV platforms continue to vie to keep their legacy sports rights because they view them as “the final hurdle preventing their dubious customers from churning exclusively to the streamers,” ReThink observes.