The Premier League is the only major league that earns more abroad than at home: about £2.16 billion a season from international rights in the 2025-28 cycle against £1.67 billion from Sky and TNT domestically. La Liga earns roughly €900 million a season internationally, Serie A €220-370 million, the Bundesliga about €240 million and Ligue 1 under €100 million, while the NFL and NBA earn well over 90% of their media income at home. International rights are where leagues grow once the domestic market is saturated, which is why UEFA has handed its global sale to Relevent and the NFL now stages a record number of games abroad.
Domestic vs international rights is the strategic choice behind every league’s media income. Domestic rights are sold to a home market that is large and competitive but eventually stops growing; international rights are sold territory by territory to dozens of broadcasters, and they are where the Premier League, UEFA and Formula 1 have found their growth in the 2020s. This article explains how the two markets differ, which leagues have built real export businesses, how overseas rights are packaged and what the US leagues, UEFA and smaller leagues such as Türkiye’s Süper Lig are trying to copy. It belongs to the Sports Economy hub and builds on our sizing of the global sports media rights market and our guide to the NFL and NBA media deals.
Which leagues earn most from international rights?
The Premier League, at about £2.16 billion a season in 2025-28, exceeds its domestic income for the first time. La Liga earns about €900 million abroad, the NBA several hundred million dollars, and the NFL and Bundesliga far less relative to their size.
How are international rights sold?
Territory by territory, usually in three-year cycles, either directly by the league or through an agency such as Relevent or IMG. The US (NBC, £378 million a year for the Premier League) and the Middle East (beIN, about £150 million) are the largest overseas markets for European football.
Why does it matter for the sports economy?
International rights are export earnings: the Premier League alone brings more than £2 billion a year into the UK, and a league’s ability to sell abroad now decides whether its clubs can compete for players.
How do domestic vs international rights differ?
Domestic rights cover a league’s home country and are usually sold in a few large packages to one to three broadcasters. International rights cover every other territory, are sold in dozens of separate deals, and depend on the sport’s foreign popularity, time zones and the depth of each local pay-TV market.
The domestic market is where almost every league starts and where most still earn the majority of their money. It is concentrated: the Premier League sells to Sky and TNT, the Bundesliga to Sky and DAZN, the NFL to four networks plus Amazon. Prices are set by the number of credible bidders and the size of the home pay-TV and advertising market, which is why the NFL’s domestic deals are worth more than $12 billion a season and the Bundesliga’s about €1.12 billion.
The international market is fragmented. Overseas rights are typically split into 50 to 190 territories, each sold to the highest local bidder. Some are large, such as the United States, the Middle East and the Nordics; most are worth a few million a year or less. The league either runs its own sales team, as the Premier League does, or appoints an agency, as UEFA has done with Relevent from 2027. Because so many deals must be negotiated, cycles are staggered and the headline total is an aggregate of contracts signed at different times in different currencies.
The economic logic differs too. A domestic broadcaster pays for exclusivity in a market where the league is the main attraction; an international broadcaster pays for a foreign product that competes with its own league and must fit local kick-off times. That is why Saturday 3pm Premier League matches, blacked out in the UK, are a prime product in Asia.
Why does the Premier League earn more abroad than at home?
Because it has spent thirty years building distribution in nearly every country, its matches fall in Asian prime time, English is the world’s commercial language and its competitive balance makes it attractive beyond two or three clubs’ fans. Overseas rights of about £2.16 billion a season in 2025-28 now exceed domestic live rights of £1.67 billion.
The Premier League’s international income grew from roughly £1.4 billion a year in the 2019-22 cycle to about £1.75 billion in 2022-25 and £2.16 billion in 2025-28, according to Sporting Intelligence’s analysis of league figures. Over the same period domestic rights were flat or falling: the 2019-22 UK deal dropped 8%, and the 2025-29 deal rose only about 4% per season for live rights. Growth has come almost entirely from abroad, and the clubs’ combined broadcast income of about £4.08 billion a season, up 17% on the previous cycle, is an export success story.
The largest overseas contracts show where the money is. NBC pays about £378 million a year for US rights until 2028, the biggest single international deal in football; beIN roughly £150 million a year for the Middle East and North Africa; Canal+ holds France and several other European markets, Viaplay the Nordics; and in February 2026 ESPN extended its South America and Caribbean rights through 2031 at a reported 25% increase, worth around £450 million over the term. The growth markets in the latest cycle were Thailand, China, India, Japan and Mexico. The league’s distribution formula also matters: overseas income is shared mainly equally with a merit element, so even the bottom club receives tens of millions a year from foreign television, which is a large part of why Premier League clubs can outbid continental rivals for players, as we explain in Premier League economics: where the money comes from and where it goes.
| League | Domestic rights per season | International per season | International share | Main overseas buyers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premier League (2025-28) | £1.67bn (Sky, TNT, BBC) | ~£2.16bn | ~56% | NBC (US), beIN (MENA), Canal+, Viaplay, ESPN (S. America) |
| La Liga (2022-27) | ~€990m (Movistar, DAZN) | ~€900m | ~48% | ESPN (US ~$175m), Televisa (Mexico), DAZN (Germany, Italy, Portugal) |
| Serie A (2024-29) | ~€900m (DAZN, Sky Italia) | ~€220-370m | ~25% | CBS/Paramount+ (US), DAZN (UK) |
| Bundesliga (2025-29) | ~€1.12bn (Sky, DAZN) | ~€240m | ~18% | ESPN (US ~$30m), beIN (France), Telenet |
| Ligue 1 (2025-26) | ~€250m (Ligue 1+ and beIN) | ~€80-120m | ~30% | beIN, DAZN in selected markets |
| NFL (2025) | ~$12.5bn | Low hundreds of $m | <5% | DAZN (NFL Game Pass international), Sky, ProSieben |
Sources: Sporting Intelligence and Swiss Ramble (Premier League); The Esk, August 2025 (La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1); FootballTransfers (NBC); league announcements (NFL). Serie A’s international figure is reported inconsistently; Ligue 1 domestic reflects Ligue 1+ revenue plus beIN’s single-match fee.
How do the NFL and NBA approach international rights?
Differently from European football, because their domestic deals are so large that overseas income barely registers. The NFL earns more than $12 billion a season at home and a small fraction abroad; the NBA, with international income in the hundreds of millions of dollars, is the most globalised American league. Both use games abroad as marketing rather than as rights revenue.
The NFL’s international strategy has shifted from selling rights to staging games. In 2025 the league played a record number of regular-season games abroad, including London, Dublin, Berlin, Madrid and São Paulo, with the Brazil game streamed free worldwide on YouTube. International media rights are sold to DAZN, which carries NFL Game Pass outside the US, and to broadcasters such as Sky and ProSieben, but the sums are in the low hundreds of millions of dollars, under 5% of media income. Parrot Analytics’ 2025 demand data ranks the NFL’s foreign interest highest in Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany and Mexico, with Türkiye and France also in the top ten.
The NBA has been exporting for longer and earns more: international rights of about £360 million a year by 2019 according to Sporting Intelligence, regional partners such as Tencent in China and Sky in Europe, games in Paris, Mexico City and Abu Dhabi and the Basketball Africa League. Even so, international media remains well under 10% of its $6.9 billion-a-year domestic haul. Both leagues under-earn abroad for the same reason: American sports are played at times that do not suit Europe or Asia and face strong local competition from football and cricket in almost every market.
How are international rights packaged and sold?
In three main ways: territory-by-territory sales run by the league’s own team, agency-led tenders in which a firm such as Relevent or IMG sells on the league’s behalf for a commission or guarantee, and global single-platform deals such as Apple’s for MLS. Most leagues combine the first two; few can attempt the third.
The Premier League model is in-house: its media team runs tenders in each territory, usually on three-year cycles, inviting bids from local broadcasters, pay-TV operators and streamers. The advantage is control and margin; the cost is a large sales operation and currency exposure, since most deals are priced in local currency or dollars while clubs are paid in sterling. UEFA has moved the other way: from 2027 its club competition rights are sold by UC3, a joint venture with the European Club Association, through the American agency Relevent, whose first cycle produced about €775 million across 19 territories outside the big five markets, a 40% increase, plus the Paramount, Amazon, Canal+ and Telefónica deals in the major markets.
Global deals are the newest model. Apple’s 2023-32 MLS agreement covers every country, which simplifies distribution but caps the upside because one buyer sets one price for the world. UEFA has studied a global streaming package for one Champions League match per round, with Netflix, Amazon and Apple named as potential bidders; a worldwide streamer may pay more than fifty local broadcasters, but it hands one company leverage over the league’s most valuable asset. Our article on Apple, Amazon, Netflix and DAZN in sport examines those deals in detail.
Why do most leagues struggle to build an export market?
Because foreign audiences want the best product in a convenient time zone, and few leagues qualify. Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 earn 18-30% of their media income abroad despite decades of effort, and leagues outside the big five, including Türkiye’s Süper Lig, earn almost nothing from foreign television.
The Bundesliga is the clearest example of a strong domestic league with limited export income: the highest average attendances in world football and a domestic deal worth about €1.12 billion a season, but international rights of only around €240 million, and a US deal with ESPN worth about $30 million a season against the Premier League’s £378 million. The 50+1 ownership rule and a decade of one-club dominance have limited the star power and competitive narrative foreign broadcasters pay for, as our Germany country playbook explains. Serie A’s international targets of €1.1 billion for 2024-27 and €1.9 billion for 2027-30 have not been met; La Liga has done better, with about €900 million abroad, on the strength of Real Madrid and Barcelona and distribution through ESPN and Televisa in the Americas.
Türkiye illustrates the problem for leagues below the big five. The Süper Lig has passionate domestic audiences, large diaspora followings in Germany and the Netherlands and regular Champions League participation by Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, yet its international rights are bundled into beIN’s domestic deal and worth a small fraction of the roughly $370 million a season the broadcaster pays; beIN can show matches on its other networks or sell them where it lacks coverage, so export income is capped by its partner’s footprint. The same is true of the Eredivisie, Portugal and most of Latin America.
Cricket shows the alternative path: the IPL earns almost all of its $6.2 billion 2023-27 rights income domestically, but the BCCI also sells international rights in the UK, Australia, the Gulf and the US to serve the Indian diaspora, the most reliable route to foreign income for a league whose sport is not played widely abroad.
What role do governments and trade policy play?
A growing one. International sports rights are a service export that increasingly appears in trade statistics, soft-power strategies and trade disputes. The UK counts the Premier League as a creative export, Gulf states buy rights as part of national branding, and the beoutQ dispute was fought at the World Trade Organization.
For the United Kingdom, the Premier League’s £2.16 billion a year in overseas rights is comparable to a mid-sized manufacturing sector’s exports, and the league is regularly cited in government trade promotion; our UK country playbook treats it as a national export industry. In the Gulf, beIN’s Qatari ownership and the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s sports investments are instruments of national positioning as much as commercial decisions.
Trade policy can also constrain the market. The European Commission has historically required leagues to sell domestic rights in multiple packages but has not interfered with international sales. The WTO ruling on beoutQ in 2020 was the first sports broadcasting dispute to reach that level, and it confirmed that governments are responsible for protecting foreign rights holders from piracy in their territory. The economic cost of piracy is now a standard topic in bilateral trade talks between the UK, the EU and the markets where their leagues sell.
What is the right rights strategy for a league in 2026?
It depends on where the league sits. Properties with global demand should keep domestic sales in-house, use agencies or global tenders to grow abroad and protect free-to-air reach at home. Mid-tier leagues should prioritise domestic stability, piggyback on continental competitions and target diaspora markets rather than chase worldwide distribution.
For the Premier League and UEFA, the questions are whether to sell a global streaming package, how to balance the US market against the rest, and how to keep growing overseas income when domestic fees have plateaued. For the NFL and NBA the question is the reverse: how to build international audiences through games and free streams so that foreign rights become a meaningful second income line. For leagues from Türkiye to the Netherlands the realistic goal is to separate international rights from the domestic contract, sell diaspora and regional packages directly, and use UEFA participation as the shop window.
What unites all three groups is that international income is now the only part of the media rights market still growing for most properties. PwC’s 2026 Global Sports Survey found executives expecting media rights to grow just 5.4% a year, the slowest of any major revenue stream, while Ampere Analysis expects Asian rights spending to rise 37% by 2030 against 16% in Europe. The leagues that can sell into that growth will fund their clubs’ next decade; the rest will depend on a shrinking pool of domestic pay-TV subscribers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Premier League earn from international TV rights?
About £2.16 billion a season in the 2025-28 cycle, roughly £6.5 billion over three years, according to Sporting Intelligence’s analysis of league figures, exceeding domestic live rights of about £1.67 billion a season from Sky and TNT for the first time. The largest overseas contract is NBC’s US deal at about £378 million a year, followed by beIN’s Middle East deal at roughly £150 million.
Why does the NFL earn so little from international rights?
Because its domestic deals, worth more than $12 billion a season, dwarf any foreign market, and because American football is played at times that do not suit European or Asian viewers and competes with football and cricket abroad. The league sells international rights to DAZN, Sky and others for sums in the low hundreds of millions, and has shifted its strategy toward staging games in London, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Australia to build audiences first.
Who sells UEFA’s international rights?
From 2027-28, UC3, a joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association, sells club competition rights through Relevent Sports Group, which replaced TEAM Marketing. Relevent’s first tender produced about €775 million across 19 territories outside the five largest markets, a 40% increase, plus deals with Paramount+ and Amazon in the UK and Germany, Canal+ in France, Telefónica in Spain and Sky and Amazon in Italy.
Can smaller leagues build an international rights business?
Rarely at scale. Leagues outside Europe’s big five, including Türkiye’s Süper Lig, the Eredivisie and Portugal’s Primeira Liga, typically earn only a few per cent of their media income abroad, often through their domestic broadcaster’s international networks rather than direct sales. The most effective routes are diaspora packages, as Indian cricket has shown, regional bundles, and using UEFA or CONMEBOL competitions as a showcase.
