Entertainment deal activity rises on IP demand in 2026

Despite continuing economic headwinds, the first half of 2026 has seen burgeoning activity in the entertainment sector across the value spectrum.  Standout transactions this year include: Fox’s acquisition of Roku; EA’s take-private by PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners; Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros; BMG and Concord’s mega merger; Virgin Music Group acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings; and Global Media & Entertainment’s majority investment in The Overlap. 

Why all the activity? Several factors are driving momentum.  Financing conditions have stabilised, covenant-lite loans are still available, while borrowing costs are easing. In these conditions, quality intellectual property (IP) is valuable and highly sought after by private capital and trade buyers.

Quality IP tends to comprise assets with established rights, a strong audience following, repeat engagement, and the potential for further expansion and monetisation, such as across new geographic markets and the potential for transmedia opportunities.  However, building this kind of IP organically – particularly with a proven audience base - is difficult, which helps explain the continued focus on acquisitions as a route to scale.

Acquiring that IP is rarely straightforward, however — whether because underlying rights have been fragmented (making chain-of-title diligence burdensome and time-consuming), regulatory hurdles apply, or issues arise around creative control and emerging digital and immersive rights. In some cases, it therefore makes more sense to share risk through joint ventures and co-productions. Even where high-quality IP is secured, valuation remains challenging where future revenues are uncertain. In these cases, pricing is often bridged or supplemented by earn-outs and other performance-based mechanisms, which in turn introduce additional complexity and potential for dispute, particularly around calculations, timing of payments, security and tax treatment.

Streaming is a good example of the shift toward quality over scale, as in recent years the market has moved away from subscriber growth, towards profitability and better use of rights. Buyers are targeting specialist streaming services, regional content libraries and other media assets that can deepen engagement without adding too much fixed cost.

In gaming, mobile formats, cross-platform play, live operations and in-game economies are attractive because revenue is often linked to repeat use. But value is also linked to the underlying IP, rights, data, platform access and commercial arrangements relating to the game.  Alongside assessing the IP itself, buyers must also understand software provenance, open-source usage, platform terms, live-service models, virtual goods and user-generated content.

A key commercial arrangement is likely to be the publisher agreement, which a buyer will scrutinise carefully to understand key areas such as revenue-sharing and recoupment, the extent of licensing permissions and sequel rights.