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“This is Not the End of Sports’ Boom in Asia. It is the End of the Easy Part,” MPA Boss Vivek Couto Tells Sports Execs
09 October 2026
The Asia-Pacific sports boom is not over. But it is “the end of the easy part,” Media Partners Asia’s (MPA) executive director Vivek Couto said today during MPA’s second APOS Sports Edge event in Singapore.
“For five years, rights fees rose on a handful of contested tenders, more than half of the growth from one country and much of it from one sport, and several buyers are still paying for what they bought. Yet the region earns about US$4 of commercial sports revenue against more than US$200 in North America,” Couto said.
“That gap is not a ceiling. It is headroom. The next dollar will come from the seat, the sponsor, the local star and the women’s game, and it will go to the rights-holders who know their fans by name,” he added.
“In the end, it’s all in the cash flow. The work now is building businesses, not simply selling rights,” he said, forecasting that rights fees growth in Asia will slow to 1%-2% a year to 2030 after about 10% a year from 2021-2026.
Streamers now make up 50% of the sports rights fees paid in Asia, up from 36% in 2021, according to MPA data presented. Rights fees rose 58% in five years to US$5.7 billion.
MPA presented findings on the 2026 US$16-billion commercial sports economy across 14 markets in its “Mapping the Sports Economy” paper, which combines two new reports – “APAC’s Sports Economy and Where Value Goes Next”, covering 14 markets, and “APAC Sports Fandom: The Consumer’s Voice”, ampd’s study of 10,249 fans in six markets.
35% of fans who took up a new sport came in through someone they know; 14% came in through a big event, MPA said, adding that 63% of fans who spent on sport in the last year bought no subscription at all.
MPA’s five takeouts for the next cycle lead with “rights growth has to be earned”, including local products, investment, new rights structures and action on piracy; closing the sponsorship gap; ow...
The Asia-Pacific sports boom is not over. But it is “the end of the easy part,” Media Partners Asia’s (MPA) executive director Vivek Couto said today during MPA’s second APOS Sports Edge event in Singapore.
“For five years, rights fees rose on a handful of contested tenders, more than half of the growth from one country and much of it from one sport, and several buyers are still paying for what they bought. Yet the region earns about US$4 of commercial sports revenue against more than US$200 in North America,” Couto said.
“That gap is not a ceiling. It is headroom. The next dollar will come from the seat, the sponsor, the local star and the women’s game, and it will go to the rights-holders who know their fans by name,” he added.
“In the end, it’s all in the cash flow. The work now is building businesses, not simply selling rights,” he said, forecasting that rights fees growth in Asia will slow to 1%-2% a year to 2030 after about 10% a year from 2021-2026.
Streamers now make up 50% of the sports rights fees paid in Asia, up from 36% in 2021, according to MPA data presented. Rights fees rose 58% in five years to US$5.7 billion.
MPA presented findings on the 2026 US$16-billion commercial sports economy across 14 markets in its “Mapping the Sports Economy” paper, which combines two new reports – “APAC’s Sports Economy and Where Value Goes Next”, covering 14 markets, and “APAC Sports Fandom: The Consumer’s Voice”, ampd’s study of 10,249 fans in six markets.
35% of fans who took up a new sport came in through someone they know; 14% came in through a big event, MPA said, adding that 63% of fans who spent on sport in the last year bought no subscription at all.
MPA’s five takeouts for the next cycle lead with “rights growth has to be earned”, including local products, investment, new rights structures and action on piracy; closing the sponsorship gap; owning the venue, the calendar and the fan; backing the next contested tenders; and running sport as a business.
“About US$14 billion has been invested in APAC sport or changed hands since 2021, mostly in IPL franchises and venues. Capital has bought scarcity, not cash flow,” Couto said.
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