Synamedia estimates the cost of piracy to the sports media industry to be as much as $28.3bn a year. (Credit: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock)

Making sports streaming services more affordable will help to tackle media piracy in the sector, according to a new report.

The 2024 edition of GlobalData’s Media Piracy in Sport report outlines that the rise of streaming platforms has brought about new options for fans to watch sports and that it represents the future of sports broadcasting. However, the report adds that the proliferation of platforms with sports spread across them has raised the cost for many of watching those in which they are interested.

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“While the increased number of ways to watch sports is a benefit to fans, issues have been caused by media rights being split between multiple platforms, most of which require a subscription fee of some sort,” the report states, adding that “the ever-increasing value of these various media rights has made the situation much worse and will continue to do so in the coming years.”

This has led to many sports fans viewing events via illegal streaming platforms at no or lower extra cost and “means that broadcasters are missing out on potentially millions in subscription fees, which is something that is of obvious concern to these platforms,” the report explains.

Indeed, it refers to piracy as “the single biggest threat to the sports media industry” and quotes research by Synamedia as estimating the cost of piracy to the industry at as much as $28.3 billion a year. This is particularly significant as it represents over half of the total value of the industry, which Statista puts at $56 billion.

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To combat the rising tide of piracy, it suggests: “Legal options need to be made available in all countries, and existing options should be made cheaper, with surveys indicating that many who illegally stream would not do so if there was an affordable alternative.”

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It acknowledges that this would damage revenues, with sports leagues unlikely to accept lowering the value of their rights fees accordingly, but does also note that lowering streaming platform subscription fees would offset this issue to some extent by unlocking “potentially millions in subscription fees”.