Global investment in media content production is projected to reach $255 billion in 2026, representing a 2 percent year-on-year increase, according to new forecasts by Ampere Analysis.
The growth, though modest, continues to be underpinned by sustained spending from global streaming platforms, which are steadily expanding their share of total content investment.
Ampere Analysis notes that while overall expansion remains moderate, the continued shift toward streaming is widening the gap between global platforms and traditional broadcasters.
Persistent advertising pressures are limiting the capacity of broadcasters to increase spending, further entrenching the structural imbalance within the content ecosystem.
The report indicates that global streaming platforms will remain the principal driver of growth in 2026. Ampere forecasts that ad-funded and subscription-based streaming services will collectively invest $101 billion in content, accounting for roughly two-fifths of total global content expenditure.
This contrasts with a more constrained outlook for traditional broadcast models, with pay TV operators, commercial broadcasters, and public broadcasters expected to experience stagnant or declining investment as advertising revenues remain under pressure and production costs continue to rise.
The divergence between international streaming services and local broadcasters is expected to intensify. While global streamers continue to scale up investment, local broadcasters are facing increasing difficulty sustaining content output amid higher costs, prolonged advertising challenges, and changes in viewer behaviour following the pandemic.
In the United States, commercial broadcasters are cutting back on spending as studio parent companies redirect budgets toward their owned streaming platforms. Broadcasters outside the US are showing relatively stronger resilience, however, with many maintaining their investment levels through 2026.
Major global sporting events are also expected to contribute to higher content spending in 2026. Events such as the football World Cup and the Winter Olympics, traditionally dominated by broadcast television, are increasingly drawing interest from streaming platforms.
Services such as Amazon Prime Video have expanded their sports strategies, including the acquisition of major NBA rights through 2026.
“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,” said Peter Ingram, Research Manager at Ampere Analysis.
“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.”
