Streamers will help boost global content spend to $255bn in 2026 forecasts Ampere

Global content investment will rise 2% year-on-year to US$255bn in 2026, according to UK research firm Ampere Analysis, with growth driven by sustained investment from global streaming platforms.

Ampere noted that while overall growth remains modest, a further increase in the streamers’ share of content spend is widening the gap with traditional broadcasters, whose ability to increase content investment continues to be hit by advertising pressures and rising production costs.

According to Ampere, streaming services will spend US$101bn on content in 2026, representing around two-fifths of total global content spend.

Meanwhile, Ampere expects to see stagnant or declining content investment from pay TV, commercial and public broadcasters. The situation is worst in the US, where commercial broadcasters are reducing spending as studio parent groups redirect budgets to their owned streaming platforms. Outside the US, broadcasters are showing slightly better resilience and are expected to maintain their investment levels through 2026.

Content spending in 2026 will be boosted by major global sporting events such as the football World Cup and the Winter Olympics, but while these are historically dominated by broadcast television, streaming platforms are expanding their sports strategies too.

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.”