It looks like Netflix is finally ready to fully commit to live sports.
A new report from Puck's John Ourand confirms that Netflix is expected to end up streaming both Christmas games for the 2024 NFL season, confirming the prediction made by NFL legend and radio host Boomer Esiason earlier this week.
The teams that will play in those two games are still unclear as the league delayed the schedule announcement until Wednesday, May 15.
Related: Netflix and the NFL could be working on a major deal, according to former star quarterback
Netflix (NFLX) has been diving into sports for the past few years, starting with popular sports docuseries like “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” and “Quarterback.” The streaming giant then moved on to broadcasting live streams of sports-related events, such as exhibition games like “The Netflix Cup,” and most recently, airing “The Roast of Tom Brady.”
But the company didn't commit to live sports streaming in the same way as rivals like amazon. (AMZN) Prime Video had committed billions to stream live sports like the NFL's “Thursday Night Football.” In January, Netflix suddenly announced a massive 10-year, $5 billion deal that would allow WWE Raw to stream live on Netflix by 2025.
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Even then, Netflix tried to see it as a continuation of its sports storytelling because WWE is live sports entertainment rather than an unscripted product.
“You know, we said this many times, but not against sports, but in favor of profitable growth,” Sarandos said during Netflix's first-quarter 2024 earnings conference call in April. “And I think that's the core of everything we do in all types of programming, including sports. So our north star is to increase engagement, revenue and profits. And if we find opportunities, we could drive all three We'll do it through a broader and wider variety of quality entertainment. So when those opportunities come, we'll be able to go in and do that, which we feel we did in our deal with WWE, if we can replicate that dynamic in other things. , including sports, we will look at it for sure.”
More sports media:
- The NBA could get almost $7 billion in an agreement with ESPN, amazon and NBC
- What the Netflix and WWE deal means for the future of the media industry
- ESPN's Jason Kelce signing shows Disney's new strategy, according to Dan Le Batard
If Netflix confirms the reports, the deal with the NFL would mark Netflix's first foray into streaming a live game from a major sports league on its platform.
The financial aspects of the deal are still unclear, although don't be surprised if this is around $200 million for the game, as multiple reports have said that amazon paid around $100 million to stream the NFL's first Black Friday game, while NBC reportedly paid a similar amount to broadcast last year's Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins on Peacock. That was the first NFL playoff game to be broadcast exclusively on a streaming service.
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