Chief Operating Officer, President & Director, TKO Group Holdings
Mark Shapiro Predicts the Future of ESPN, Netflix & Sports Streaming
Conversations with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, ESPN NFL Analyst Mina Kimes, TKO Group President and COO Mark ...He's the president of talent powerhouse Endeavor and COO of TKO Group. Mark Shapiro is at the center of the sports business ...
About Mark Shapiro
Mark Shapiro, President and COO of TKO, participated in two public events in mid-2026. At a Wall Street Journal Sports event on July 16, Shapiro discussed TKO's role in live entertainment. He described attending the New York Knicks' 29-point comeback in Game 4 of the NBA playoffs as a memorable live sports experience. Shapiro stated that TKO's event at the White House for the nation's 250th birthday was a "one and done," calling it a "smash" but adding that the company would not repeat it because it was expensive and they were "first mover." He also said that increased discretionary time from AI would strengthen demand for live events, asserting that "sports is at the epicenter" of physical aggregation. At a Meridian International Center event on June 18 focused on sports diplomacy, Shapiro said that sports and entertainment provide a "shared cultural language" that allows people to "get away" and "connect." He described TKO's strategy of using AI and social chatter to identify local interest before bringing events to a city, adding that the goal is to "drive economic impact" for hotels, arenas, and restaurants. Shapiro stated that TKO's approach is not about politics, but about business opportunities. He also noted that sports benefit from simplicity, using the example of mixed martial arts where "one is going to get knocked out or submit and the other is not."
Transcript (11 segments)
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Sherman0:00
Welcome back to "CNBC Sport on the Record." He's the president of talent powerhouse Endeavor and COO of TKO Group. Mark Shapiro is at the center of the sports business universe. His company controls both the UFC and WWE. I sat down with him to discuss which legacy media companies will still be standing in five years, and how he plans to grow TKO beyond combat sports.
Do you feel like this is the start of something transformative in the industry? In other words, that the big tech companies -- YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Netflix -- will become the dominant players in owning sports rights?
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Mark Shapiro0:44
Look, content is strong. Everybody loves to write about the demise or the squeezing of the content spend. The fact of the matter is between the six biggest spenders globally, $126 billion in content will have been spent in 2024, which is up 300 basis points from last year and expected to grow another 9% next year. So, content spend from the Netflix and the Amazons and the Disneys and the Warner Bros. and the Googles, it's hot, right? It's meaningful. And sports rights is driving a lot of that right now. That's what's more amazing than anything, Alex. Sports used to be an "Oh, by the way, oh, something on the weekend." Now it's leading the way. Sure, there are a lot of scripted series. Sure, there are a lot of docs and features and films that are out there. Sure, the movie business is coming back and folks are investing in all kinds of different windows, but sports rights is leading the way. Whether it's the NFL, the CFP, our WWE deal on Netflix, content spend in sports is strong and healthy. And, yes, I believe you will see more players, new players looking to expand their content portfolio.
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Sherman1:56
For like 30 years, people have talked about this idea of, are we in a sports bubble? That has not proven to be the case. As you said, if anything, we appear to be hotter now than ever before in terms of sports associated interest, media rights.
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Mark Shapiro2:07
Sure.
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Sherman2:10
But let me give you a scenario, and I want to hear your thoughts on it. We also talked about peak TV maybe five years ago, and that has borne out, that five years ago, when all the streaming services jumped in, a ton of shows were made, and now we're in the post peak TV era where you're seeing a pullback. Is it possible that the reason sports are so hot right now is you have new streaming players that want subscribers, and an old legacy media industry that's dying and holding onto sports for dear life, and these two factors that have married to each other right now have led to a number of different bidders that absolutely want and need sports, and that five years from now, after we see consolidation within the media rights, the further death of cable TV, we have fewer buyers and this dynamic doesn't exist anymore and the demand for sports rights actually comes down?
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Mark Shapiro3:08
I love it. How many different ways can we try to write the story that the sports bubble is going to burst? Here's the way I look at it. Sports rights are always hot in some form. The temperature is up there. Let's just be clear about that. Sometimes it's really super hot, and if you catch it in that wave, in that moment, in that frame, you're going to fully capitalize on getting the kind of increases you're looking for as a content rights owner. Sometimes it's just warm, so you'll get an increase, but it may not be record breaking. But it's always going to be in demand because sports unify us. That's what it does. Sports is argument. There's history, there's equity, there's tradition, there's folklore, there's stars, there's personalities, there's rivalries, there's rooting interests. Name your sport. You've got it. Look at soccer. Soccer didn't even exist when I was running ESPN. I mean, come on, it was MLS and there was a World Cup every four years that we were interested if the US did well. Now women's soccer has two leagues globally. MLS has grown so much under Don Garber and the fantastic job he's done. The World Cup, The Euro Cup has been a super communal event. And then of course, NFL's still going strong, college football going stronger than ever with the 12-team CFP. And then UFC's now become a mainstream. WWE's carved out its own niche. The World Series is coming off the best ratings since 2017. This isn't slowing down. It's just a question of catching it, as a content rights owner, when it's peaking, 'cause it will have some dips.
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Sherman4:45
Do me a favor. Prediction time. Five years from now, who's still around among the big media guys?
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Mark Shapiro4:51
I think the big guys are all around. They're all still hanging around the hoop...
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Sherman4:56
And when you say "big guys," what do you mean?
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Mark Shapiro4:56
...or leading the way. Disney, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Warner Bros., Comcast. Paramount/CBS is there too, and maybe there's a Warner Bros. play. Who knows what happens? Right? There's all kinds of different scenarios out there, and I would never bet against John Malone. Let's -- Let's say that. But, I mean, YouTube's earnings? Insane quarter to quarter. These guys are doing $12.5 billion of advertising every quarter. I mean, that's a head-spinner. Netflix, spending $17 billion in content. Not afraid to spend more for the right thing. Tiptoeing in sports with the NFL Christmas games? Viewership, engagement, off the charts. Amazon? Hey, one-stop shopping. I'm going to the marketplace. I'm going to shop. And I'm also going to take in some content, and a real player now in sports. And by the way, doing it very, very well. And you can never bet against Disney -- I mean, for me, the best... most prolific brand in all of content. So I think they'll all be around, but they'll definitely look for ways to shed some archaic assets.