Industry

Sports: The Last Great Moat
If there is one trend that towers above all others, it is the relentless ascent of sports as a content category. Parrot Analytics' data makes the financial logic undeniable: the NFL commands $12.4 billion in global media rights value, followed by the NBA at $6.9 billion and MLB at $5.3 billion. The Premier League, at $4.8 billion, remains Europe's dominant force.
But the more telling finding is the near-perfect correlation — between Parrot's demand signal for sports properties and their actual media rights valuations. In plain terms: audience demand, as measured across social media, streaming platforms and search behaviour from over two billion consumers globally, is a reliable predictor of how much leagues are worth to broadcasters. This gives rights holders and buyers an unprecedented tool for negotiating and forecasting.
Formula 1 offers perhaps the most compelling case study. Interest in the sport had plateaued — until the announcement and release of the F1 feature film reignited global appetite. The data shows a sharp spike in demand across both the sport itself and the associated Drive to Survive documentary series in the weeks surrounding the film's debut. Apple TV+ subsequently secured a five-year, $750 million deal for exclusive US broadcast rights to the championship — a bet that the sports-documentary-movie flywheel can keep spinning and convert subscribers into fans, and fans into subscribers.

The Non-English Revolution Accelerates
Perhaps the most structurally important finding in the Parrot report concerns the geography of content creation. Non-English speaking titles now account for roughly 21% of global streaming revenue — up from just 12% in early 2020. The curve has been consistently upward, with an acceleration particularly evident from 2024 onward.
Japan leads in revenue share among non-English producing nations, followed by South Korea, Spain, France and Germany. But the more strategically useful metric is success rate — the proportion of titles that break into the top 20% of global streaming revenue. Here, South Korea tops the rankings, with Spain and Japan close behind.
The report highlights what it describes as Europe's "next wave": Italy, Germany, the Nordics and Turkey are rapidly gaining ground. Global success, the data suggests, is no longer concentrated in a handful of markets. Shows like the Turkish This Sea Will Overflow , Korean thriller The Manipulated , Argentinian sci-fi epic The Eternaut, and French crime drama The Lost Station Girls demonstrate that compelling storytelling can command outstanding international audiences regardless of language.

British Content: Gritty Cities and Placeless Universes
The section on British content travelability is particularly instructive — and reassuring — for UK producers and distributors. The traditional image of British storytelling exported globally has long been anchored in period worlds: Regency, Victorian, Edwardian. Downton Abbey, Sanditon, Great Expectations — these titles defined "Brand Britain" for international audiences for decades.
That identity is evolving rather than disappearing. The 2025 data shows the year's UK breakout shows now span what the report calls "gritty cities to placeless universes — British in voice, but global in appeal." The most demanded new British launches globally in Q1–Q3 2025 were led by MobLand and Adolescence, with King and Conqueror, Atomic, Bookish and Dept. Q also performing strongly in the "outstanding" tier.

Adolescence is the breakout story. The Netflix limited series achieved outstanding demand ratings in at least 14 markets simultaneously, with  UK, Italy , Spain and India. Its world map of travelability is almost entirely teal — the colour denoting outstanding performance. It is a textbook example of a relatable, universal narrative that transcends its very British context.
MobLand, on the other hand, illustrates a different and equally important dynamic: dark, contemporary British crime drama travels. The show achieved demand scores of 75–81% of its origin market performance across a dozen countries — from Hungary and Spain to South Africa, Italy and Norway. Heritage drama is not the only export Britain does well.

Parrot's genre analysis adds further granularity. Procedural dramas — Blue Lights, The Responder, Bloodlands, Beyond Paradise — score high on travelability, mirroring the enduring international success of US procedural franchises. Comedy Dramas like Ludwig, Bad Sisters, Brassic and Sweetpea achieve both high UK demand and genuine international appeal. The Harlan Coben adaptations (Fool Me Once, Safe, Lazarus) represent a distinct and potent formula: content that feels British in tone but is set in deliberately neutral, borderless worlds — an approach that maximises international licensing potential.

The Methodology Behind the Numbers
Parrot Analytics bases its findings on what it calls the "Content Genome" — a proprietary system that maps supply-side metadata (genre, cast, language, platform, production company, release year) against a demand signal drawn from the behavioural data of more than two billion consumers across social media, streaming platforms, social video and research activity. Consumer interactions are weighted by intensity: creative participation and active consumption count for more than passive impressions.
The resulting dataset, updated continuously across global markets, underpins decisions at clients including Disney+, Amazon Studios, Apple TV+, Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO, Lionsgate, the NBA, YouTube and Sky, among many others.

What 2026 Looks Like
Reading the Parrot data as a whole, several strategic imperatives emerge for content businesses heading into 2026.
Sports rights will continue to command a premium, and the boundary between sports broadcasting and entertainment content — already blurred by Drive to Survive, Full Swing and the F1 movie — will blur further. Streamers that can own or anchor a sports narrative, whether live or documentary, hold a significant subscriber retention advantage.
Non-English content is no longer a niche bet or a prestige play — it is a structural component of global streaming revenue. Producers and distributors in emerging markets (Turkey, the Nordics, Italy) have a window of opportunity before those markets become as competitive as Korea or Japan.
For British producers specifically, the data suggests a dual strategy: continue to export the heritage product that global audiences love, but invest equally in contemporary crime procedurals and comedy dramas that carry universal emotional registers. The golden formula — British sensibility, neutral setting, globally resonant plot — pioneered by Danny Brocklehurst and Harlan Coben may well be the template that defines British export success through 2026 and beyond.
In the attention economy, data is not the enemy of creativity. As Parrot Analytics' findings demonstrate, it is increasingly its most reliable compass.

Source: Parrot Analytics, "Future Trends: What Does 2026 Have in Store?" — Content London 2025.