21 Highest Earning Sports TV Channels in the World

Sports has it’s significant influence on men since the very beginning of human civilization. It has become a great source of entertainment since the last couple of centuries. The popularity of various sports is increasing with every passing decade. As a result so many sports channels thrived. There are numerous sports channels all over the planet. With the increase of number of followers of various sports, the number of the sports channels is also increasing. In this article, we will discuss about the richest sports TV channels in the world.

To clarify, a large number of people from various community has chosen sports as their primary source of entertainment. The impact has resulted in large amount of investment on sporting events which is eventually helping the sports TV channels making much more revenues just like the athletes making much more net worth. Some of the sports channels got subscribers from millions of home. These huge amount of subscribers helping them earn even billions of dollars per year.

The Chart of Highest Earning Sports TV Channels

How Much Revenues the Worldwide Famous Sports Channels Make?

As I have mentioned it earlier, the investment on sports has increased with the increasing of number of followers. Sponsors are making heavy money deals with the various sports channels. It is assisting the channel groups getting much and much richer. So many sports channel groups are making more than 100 million income per annum. But these are for the ones which are ranked beneath the top 5. Some of them are making it in billions in a year which is definitely an enormous amount of money.

Which is the Richest Sports Channel in the World:

ESPN is the richest sports channel in the world at this moment. It’s an American basic cable sports channel the full name of which is “Entertainment and Sports Programming Network”. ESPN Inc. Owns it which is owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company along with Hearst Communications. The former owns 80% of it meanwhile the latter shares the other 20% ownership. The channel started it’s journey back in 1979. The Bristol, Connecticut based channel has so many sister channels in the form of ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews, ESPN BASES Loaded, ESPN Goal LinE, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes etc.

It’s definitely the mostly watched TV channel in the world thus makes the highest amount of revenue per annum. ESPN makes a revenue of 10.3 billion USD, the most by any sports channels. It is available to almost 86 million television households. You will be surprised to know that, the mentioned number makes the 93.2% of the households with pay television. ESPN which has 7 related channels in the US and 5 in Canada, broadcasts in more than 200 countries.

Various Sports Channel Groups and their Annual Earnings:

FOX Sports Network: FOX Sports Networks is another United States based sports channel group. Diamond Sports Group owns the network which started it’s journey back in 1996. FOX Sports Network used to be known as FOX Sports Net and is actually the collective name for the group of all their channels which generally broadcast regionally. The Houston, Texas based channel network does have an annual earning of 3.78 Billion USD.

Sky Sports: It is the group of British subscription television sports channels owned by the Sky group. The United kingdom based network was launched in 1990. It is the most popular TV channel in UK. It has a large number of sister channels which airs various games through them. Enormous popularity helps the network earning a mammoth 2.9 billion USD a year. It broadcasts many major events including EPL, UEFA Nations League, International matches of the England Football Team, EFL Cup, ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, ICC T20 WC, T20 Blast, County Championship etc.

TNT: Turner Network Television which is shortly known as TNT is another top earning sports TV channels network. WarnerMedia Entertainment owns the network which was launched in 1988. The Atalanta, Georgia based network makes a healthy annual revenue of 1.7 billion US Dollars. It airs so many hot cake events including NBA, NFL, MLB, College Basketball, UCL, UEL, NASCAR, PGA Championship etc.

BT Sport: A very newly launched sport channel network which was introduced just in 2013. BT Group owns the network. The group of sports channels broadcasts the shows and events generally in England and Ireland. BT Sport’s headquarter is situated in London and it makes $1.4 billion revenue per year.

NFL Network: Another US based pay television network which is owned by the National Football League (NFL). The California based network is available to 71.8 million pay television households. It’s estimated annual revenue is around 1.2 billion USD. It has a monthly subscriber fee of 1.31 US Dollars.

Star Sports: The Mumbai, India based sports channel network is highly popular in the Indian sub-continent. It delivers the taste of various sports through Star Sports 1, Star Sports 3, Star Sports Select 1 and 2, Star Sports HD1, Star Sports HD2, Star Sports 1 Hindi. The company has bought the broadcasting right of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2018. It also has the broadcasting right of the English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Hero ISL. However, the Star India group entirely makes a big revenue of 1.2 billion USD (around 84 billion Indian Rupees) per annum.

Sony Ten: Another popular sports TV network in India. It’s also Mumbai based and the broadcasting area includes the majority of the sub-continent. It airs the events through Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 2, Sony Ten 3, Sony Ten 4 as well as Sony Ten Golf. It delivers the Indian sub-continental people the tastes of the UCL, UEL, ICC Events, International Home Matches of India, Australia, England, South Africa Cricket Team etc. The entire Sony Pictures Network’s annual revenue is as much as $830 million.

Fox Sports: Fox Sports is an Australian sports channel group. Fox Sports Pty Limited owns the network, the headquarter of which is located in the New South Wales. The group makes a yearly revenue of more than $680 million US Dollars. The network televises Cricket, Australian Rules Football, Rugby etc through Fox Cricket, Fox Footy, Fox League respectively.

TSN: The Sports Network which is shortly known as TSN, is a Canadian sports specialty channel. It’s headquarter is situated in Toronto, Ontario. The sports channel has a yearly revenue of more than 400 million USD. The network airs various sports through it’s sister channels TSN2, RDS, RDS2, RDS Info.

beIN SPORTS: The Qatari sports TV channel group started it’s journey just a few years ago, back in 2012. It’s a global network of sports channels which broadcasts events in ME, Africa, France, US, Canada, Australia, NZ, Malaysia, Singapore and many more countries. The estimated revenue of beIN SPORTS is 100-500 million US Dollars per annum.

SEC Network: SEC Network is owned by ESPN Inc. and is a sister channel of ESPN. It’s headquarter is in Charlotte, North Carolina. With a monthly subscriber fee of 66 cents and availability to almost 70 million pay television households, the SEC Network makes a yearly income of around 560 million USD.

Golf Channel: US Sports TV network which is owned by the NBC Sports Group. As the name suggests itself, the network focuses on the coverage of Golf. It is based in Orlando, Florida. It has a monthly subscriber fee of 35 cent and is available to almost 80 million pay television homes. It’s yearly revenue is around $330 million.

NBC Sports Network: NBC Sports Group owns the network which airs variety of sporting events through it. It is based in Stamford, Connecticut. NBC Sports’ monthly subscriber fee is 30 cent meanwhile it is available to 83 pay TV homes. The yearly revenue of the network is just around 300 million USD.

CBS Sports Network: The New York City based sports channel generally airs NFL, College Basketball, PGA Championship. It has a monthly subscriber fee of 26 cent and is available to 65 million pay TV houses. It makes a yearly income of around 190 million USD.

Special Mentions: Big Ten Network makes an annual revenue of 290 million US Dollars meanwhile the MLB Network which focuses on the Baseball has an yearly income of around $220 million. NBA TV broadcasts the Basketball matches and earns around 199 million USD. NHL Network focuses on the National Hockey League and pockets $143 million per year. WWE Network which is the cable TV network of the World Wrestling Entertainment grabs a healthy $156 million a year. It has a monthly subscriber fee of 9.99 USD which is pretty much higher than the subscriber fees of so many channels.