Carlton Cuse On How Sports Rights Fights Are Hurting Scripted, Fair Residuals, AI & Netflix Series ‘The Secret Of Secrets’
Carlton Cuse has warned that the escalating cost of sports broadcasting rights is reducing the money available for scripted films and television. He argues that sport, particularly American football, reliably attracts large audiences, but remains optimistic that scripted drama will endure because it offers cultural and emotional insights that sport cannot provide.
Cuse cited the NBA’s 11-year, $77 billion US media deal in 2024 and said more than 80% of the highest-rated US broadcasts last year were football games. He is preparing to begin production in Prague on Netflix’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets, in which Robert Langdon must rescue missing scientist Katherine Solomon; Morgan Spector and Rebecca Hall were reported as likely leads, though casting had not then been confirmed.
- Cuse says costly sports rights are squeezing scripted-TV budgets.
- He believes scripted storytelling will remain culturally important.
- Netflix’s The Secret of Secrets will film in Prague.
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Carlton Cuse is a television producer and writer who has worked on major drama series. He has raised concerns about the escalating costs of sports broadcasting rights, arguing that the enormous sums spent on sports are reducing the budgets available for scripted television dramas and films.
The figures involved are substantial. In 2024, the NBA secured an 11-year broadcasting deal valued at 77 billion US dollars, whilst American football games made up more than 80% of the highest-rated broadcasts in the United States last year. Networks justify these costs because sport reliably attracts large audiences.
Industry figures like Cuse argue that scripted television will endure despite this spending on sport, because audiences value character-driven storytelling and emotional depth. These views reflect a broader debate within the entertainment industry about how production budgets should be distributed across different types of programming.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Cuse identifies a genuine economic constraint affecting traditional networks. Broadcast and cable operators have finite budgets, and when they allocate enormous sums to secure premium sports rights—necessary to remain competitive and retain audiences—capital for scripted content development necessarily diminishes. Networks rationally prioritise sports because they reliably deliver massive audiences and premium advertising rates, leaving scripted drama to compete for reduced funding.
The case against
This argument overlooks how modern media markets function. Sports and scripted content serve distinct audiences; networks rationally pay billions for sports because audiences demonstrably prefer them and advertisers will pay accordingly—not a drain on scripted funding but efficient market allocation. Streaming platforms have decoupled scripted content from broadcast sports competition by funding it through subscriptions, and the real challenge is adapting to structural changes in consumption patterns rather than competing for finite broadcast dollars.
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