Record franchise transactions, league revenue milestones, and evolving media distribution models are highlighted in this week's SME In the News.
The past two weeks brought major developments across the sports, media, and entertainment ecosystem. The Seahawks agreed to sell for an NFL-record $9.6 billion, the World Cup continued to rewrite U.S. television records, NBA basketball-related revenues reached new highs, and media companies continued investing in sports rights and adjacent businesses.
Major Franchise Transactions Continue
Two major ownership transactions highlighted the continued demand for premium sports franchises.
Seahawks agree to sell for $9.6 billion, a new NFL record
The Khosla family agreed to buy the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion, a new NFL control-sale record. Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla is buying the defending Super Bowl champions from the estate of Paul Allen, with Neeru Khosla named as control owner. The price exceeds the previous NFL record of $6.05 billion paid for the Washington Commanders in 2023 and ranks second among all U.S. franchises only to the Lakers' $10 billion sale in 2025. The deal is pending league approval.
Rogers acquires full control of MLSE at a CAD $17.4 billion valuation
Rogers Communications agreed to buy the remaining 25% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment from Larry Tanenbaum's Kilmer Sports Ventures for CAD $4.35 billion, giving Rogers 100% ownership of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Toronto FC at an implied CAD $17.4 billion valuation. Rogers had previously bought a 37.5% stake from Bell for CAD $4.7 billion in 2024. Prior to this transaction, Rogers already owned the seventh-largest sports empire in the world, and the acquisition further expands its portfolio while bringing one of the world's most valuable multi-team sports organizations under a single owner.
Major Events Continue to Draw Large Audiences
The World Cup, Wimbledon, and UFC all posted strong audience numbers as live sports continued to outperform across platforms.
World Cup viewership breaks U.S. records
The 2026 World Cup is generating the largest non-NFL U.S. television audiences in nearly a decade. The U.S.-Belgium round of 16 averaged 50.1 million combined viewers across Fox and Telemundo, the most-watched non-NFL broadcast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. In the quarterfinals, all four matches set new English- and Spanish-language records for that round even after the USMNT's elimination. England-Norway led with 34.8 million combined viewers, and Fox averaged 15.6 million across the four games, up 150% from the 2022 tournament.
Wimbledon draws record ESPN audiences as prize money continues to climb
ESPN drew record audiences for the 2026 Wimbledon women's final, with Linda Noskova's three-set victory over Karolina Muchova averaging 1.9 million viewers, up 48% year-over-year, a new high watermark for a Wimbledon women's final on the network. The men's final averaged 2.4 million viewers as Jannik Sinner won his fifth Grand Slam title to claim a $4.8 million winner's check. The top 10 tennis players collectively earned $344 million over the past 12 months, up 26.5% from the prior year. Overall, ESPN's Wimbledon coverage averaged 853,000 viewers across two weeks, up 18% from 2025 and its second-best tournament-long audience since taking over as exclusive U.S. rights holder in 2012.
UFC 329 brings McGregor back as Paramount+ posts strong subscriber engagement
UFC 329 reached 15.9 million viewers across the U.S. and Latin America, including 14.3 million in the U.S. Peak concurrent streams reached a record 8.3 million, the highest for any exclusive live event in Paramount+ history. Since the beginning of 2026, 20 million subscriber households have watched more than 200 million hours of UFC programming on Paramount+, with viewership averaging more than 23x that of pay-per-view events over the past two years.
League and Team Economics Remain Strong
Recently reported financial results showed revenue growth at both the NBA league level and one of Japan’s leading baseball franchises.
NBA basketball-related income hits $11.7 billion
NBA basketball-related income (BRI) totaled $11.7 billion for 2025-26, up 14% from the prior year. Under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement , players are entitled to 51% of BRI in the form of salaries and benefits; the league withholds 10% of player salaries each season in an escrow account as a true-up mechanism to ensure the split between players and owners is achieved. The 2026-27 salary cap is set at $165 million, up 6.7% from last season.
Japan's SoftBank Hawks generated more revenue than 12 MLB clubs last year
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a professional baseball team in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league, generated approximately $340 million in revenue, which would rank 19th among MLB franchises. Operating profit grew 24% to $53 million. Unlike most MLB clubs, the Hawks rely on a dense local business: 3 million attendees in 2025, an 880,000-member fan program, and a stadium entertainment complex. SoftBank paid approximately $195 million for the club in 2004.
Media Companies Continue to Invest in Sports
Sports remains one of the industry's most valuable sectors, driving new rights negotiations and strategic acquisitions.
Netflix, Disney, and YouTube are positioning to bid $1.5-2 billion for the next two World Cups
With this year's domestic World Cup generating record U.S. audiences, media companies are already positioning for what comes next. Netflix, Disney, YouTube, Amazon, and Apple are all reported to be interested in U.S. rights to the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, with executives budgeting $1.5-2 billion per tournament for a combined English/Spanish package. That represents a significant increase from the $485 million Fox paid for English-language rights and the $600 million Telemundo paid for Spanish-language rights for this year's tournament. FIFA is expected to begin formal discussions with media partners in the next three months.
Versant acquires Tiger Woods-backed Full Swing for $530 million
Versant Media Group, owner of the Golf Channel, GolfPass, and GolfNow, agreed to acquire Full Swing from Bruin Capital for $530 million. Full Swing produces golf simulators used at residential and commercial venues, with Tiger Woods as an investor and ambassador since 2015, alongside Jordan Spieth, Patrick Mahomes, and Steph Curry. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. Versant was spun out of Comcast in January 2026 as a standalone publicly traded company, retaining selected cable networks and digital assets including CNBC, Golf Channel, USA Network, E!, Syfy, GolfNow, and GolfPass. Comcast recently announced plans to further separate NBCUniversal and Sky into a new publicly traded company, leaving Comcast focused primarily on broadband and wireless services.
Australia’s National Rugby League signs record $3.7 billion media rights deal
The Australian Rugby League Commission reached a seven-year, AUD$5.3 billion (approximately USD$3.7 billion) media rights agreement with Foxtel Group, Nine, and Sky NZ, the richest media rights deal in Australian sporting history. The deal begins in 2028 and represents a 90% increase in annual cash revenue compared to the current agreement. Foxtel will retain rights to all NRL matches at roughly AUD$520 million per year, Nine will carry the Grand Final and State of Origin at roughly AUD$150 million per year, and Sky NZ will broadcast NRL in New Zealand at roughly AUD$50 million per year.
And On a Fun Note…
Some of my favorite World Cup moments have been the stadium singalongs. Oasis' "Wonderwall" has become England's unofficial anthem, with UK streams of the band's music more than doubling and worldwide listenership up 40%. American fans united around "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which saw a 103% streaming increase in the U.S. from June to early July. These moments show how cultural relevance can reactivate older songs, extending the commercial life of music well beyond its initial release.
