Global content investment to hit $255bn in 2026

The research found that global streaming platforms will remain the primary driver of growth in content investment. Ampere Analysis has forecasted that ad-funded and subscription-based streamers will spend $101bn on content in 2026, representing around two-fifths of total global content spending.

Traditional broadcast models face a more constrained outlook. Ampere expects pay TV, commercial broadcasters, and public broadcasters to see stagnant or declining content investment, reflecting ongoing pressure on advertising revenues and rising production costs.

As a result, the divergence between global streamers and local broadcasters will reportedly continue to widen. While international streaming services scale investment, local broadcasters face increasing challenges sustaining content output amid rising costs, ongoing advertising pressure, and shifting post-pandemic viewer behaviour.

In the US, commercial broadcasters are reducing spend as studio parent groups redirect budgets to their owned streaming platforms. In contrast, broadcasters outside the US show slightly better resilience, maintaining their investment levels through 2026.

Major global sporting events, including the football World Cup and Winter Olympics, will provide a boost to content spending in 2026. Historically dominated by broadcast television, streaming platforms continue to expand their sports strategies, with platforms such as Amazon Prime Video securing major National Basketball Association (NBA) rights through 2026.

Peter Ingram, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis, said: “Spend in 2025 was in line with Ampere’s expectations, marked by streamers overtaking commercial broadcasters for overall contribution to the content spend landscape for the first time. In 2026, we expect streamers to further build on this, seeing 6% growth in expenditure. The accelerating shift in content investment toward streaming underscores a structural rebalancing of the global TV market, with scale and reach emerging as the central competitive differentiators for operators to remain buoyant.”

Guy Bisson, Executive Director and Co-Founder at Ampere Analysis, recently joined IBC365 and four top media analysts to reveal his data-backed assessments of 2025, as well as his predictions for 2026 and beyond. Discover more here.