Business runs the world, and in sports, television drives that business. And while live television viewership has dropped across almost the entire spectrum with the emergence of such platforms as Hulu and Netflix, one area of viewership remains constant: sports.
It’s because of this fact that television contracts for sporting leagues and competitions continue to rise, reaching astronomical levels in some cases. The most lucrative numbers are in the globally followed sport of soccer, in which broadcasts for some of the big European leagues can reach households in countries across the world every weekend. The English Premier League, for example, has a television contract that brings in a combined $12 billion to its 20 clubs.