In 2025, as Patrick Mahomes played on YouTube and the NBA embraced Peacock, with F1 giving Apple TV exclusive rights and MLB handing its Home Run Derby to Netflix, linear TV’s decades-long reign as the go-to place for the biggest sporting events came to an end. Now, fans must watch online. 

But that means the streaming wars are only half-over. In 2026, digital titans will face off with each other in the continuing battle for viewer attention. Here are four specific clashes that will define fandom this year.

The biggest prize remaining is not a set of game rights but a pattern of fan behavior: becoming the app people launch to access sports. With channel flipping outdated, the likes of ESPN, Roku and Spectrum are all racing toward slightly different visions of a single hub that would provide users with all the games they’re looking for—and maybe even other offerings such as news and betting integrations—in the same place. Amazon and Google-owned YouTube haven’t launched sports-specific platforms (yet), but both are building their case to become destination No. 1.

YouTube’s pitch is built off its exclusive Sunday Ticket package, plus the series of YouTube TV rights negotiations it navigated last year to now offer content previously locked to ESPN+ and Peacock.  

Amazon, meanwhile, has its own arsenal of exclusive content, with the Masters joining the portfolio in 2026. Part of its new NBA deal included taking League Pass off YouTube, too. It also allows fans to subscribe to other services—such as FanDuel Sports Network and Fox One—to build their own bundles within Prime Video’s walls. 

December’s biggest media squabble will carry over into 2026, as Netflix and Paramount (and maybe others) continue fighting over Warner Bros. Discovery’s most valuable assets.

Netflix’s potential $83 billion takeover of the house of Harry Potter doesn’t come with marquee sports properties (WBD previously announced plans to spin off TNT Sports), but the acquisition would establish the group of one-time Hollywood outsiders as the undisputed monarchs of entertainment. 

Even after Paramount outbid Netflix for UFC rights last year, the streamer has continued building its sports portfolio, signing talent, licensing talk shows and dipping its toes into MLB waters. The bigger Netflix gets, the more appealing it becomes for sports rightsholders to join the party in the hopes of reaching the many subscribers who treat Netflix as their go-to app for content, even without daily doses of live sports. 

This is a weird one. ESPN invests heavily into TikTok, where it has the fourth-largest brand account with 56 million followers (only FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and TikTok itself are bigger). 

But ESPN would also love to see social media users spend more time in the worldwide leader of sports’ own app. It’s now offering AI voiceovers and a TikTok-like vertical video feed in the hopes of wooing them. In August, ESPN hired its first full-time creator talent, 23-year-old Katie Feeney, who now has an audience of more than 7.5 million on TikTok.

With an all-in-one streaming service to sell, will ESPN go harder pulling fans onto its platforms, or can it find a way to profitably distribute more of its content on TikTok (and other social media platforms), where fans are increasingly spending their time? 

Oh yeah, artificial intelligence. The biggest scrum in the larger tech industry (and maybe the global economy) will have its impact on sports, too.

Disney picked a side in December, investing $1 billion in OpenAI and sending a cease-and-desist letter to Google over its alleged use of copyrighted works. But Google has its own allies thanks to partnerships with MLB and LA28 (not to mention all of YouTube’s league relationships).

Both companies are likely to use sports as a proving ground, offering back-end tech for broadcasters and promising fans new access to the games they love. Whether the changes actually improve our experience will go a long way toward determining just how valuable artificial intelligence really is.