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Netflix has continued its foray into live sports broadcasting with an announcement that it will show two NFL matches on Christmas Day, a move that has shifted the dial and highlights how streamers are now targeting live sport as a way to retain subscribers.
He said for Netflix, as with other streaming giants, original sports documentaries had been their primary focus in driving subscriptions but as this field became increasingly saturated, showing live matches offered a way of standing out from the pack and providing something extra.
Paolo Pescatore, a media and technology analyst at PP Foresight, agrees there is a delicate balance of keeping sports viewers onside as streamers eye up live events. With the NFL now also on Netflix, that means fans will need seven different services to watch all its matches.
Apple is close to a reported $1billion deal with FIFA for the rights to show its new Club World Cup, which will feature 32 teams as a part of a revamped tournament. That is scheduled to be played from June 15 to July 13 next year in the U.S.
Elsewhere, Disney+ will roll out live sport from ESPN on its streaming service for U.S. subscribers next year, while February saw ESPN, Fox Corp and Warner Bros announce Venu Sports, a new sports streaming platform that will launch in the autumn. Between them, those three companies own around 55 per cent of U.S. sports rights, including the FIFA World Cup, Formula 1, NFL, NBA and MLB.
For example, Peacock, owned by U.S. broadcaster NBC, has a deal with the Premier League; YouTube acquired the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package in 2022, paying $14billion for a seven-year contract; while Amazon has a 10-year agreement with the NFL to stream 15 Thursday Night Football games.
Meanwhile Sky, which is owned by Comcast, announced a new Sky Sports+ streaming service to launch in August to try to firm up its subscriber base. This will see Sky show up to 100 events across a range of sports on the new service, while it will stream every game from the EFL on the opening weekend of the coming season. Sky hopes to feature all 72 EFL teams at least 20 times per season.
Over the past few months, the platform has aired exhibition events in golf and tennis. It is also slated to air the 20 July bout between legendary boxer Mike Tyson and controversial online personality Jake Paul.
Last November, the streaming giant held the Netflix Cup where Formula 1 drivers were paired with PGA golfers in a match-play format. It was the first ever live-streamed sports event on the platform. Netflix also streamed an exhibition match earlier this month in Las Vegas between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.
Over the past few months, the streaming giant has aired exhibition events in golf and tennis. It is also slated to air the July 20 bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Beginning next year, Netflix will start carrying World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship show, "Raw."
So there's been speculation about whether Netflix's recent forays into live sports are a precursor to becoming a major player for live sports rights. While having another competitor for rights would certainly be welcomed, it is unlikely to happen soon.
"The discipline that they have shown about what they're either creating or acquiring and not deviating from that has been fascinating to watch so far," said Tag Garson, president of Excelsior Sports and Entertainment, a consulting and marketing company.
The Netflix Cup brought together famous figures from "Drive to Survive" and "Full Swing," and the Netflix Slam for "Point Break." Even though "Point Break" is ending after two seasons, Netflix is producing a documentary series about Alcaraz that will air next year.
"Everything that they're doing has compelling storylines. It doesn't matter what genre we're talking about within sports and entertainment," Garson said. "The way that they're going about it is also putting a very high production value into what is being distributed across Netflix."
Netflix has also proved it can create programs featuring the top sports leagues without carrying games. A new NFL series called "Receiver," which followed five wide receivers throughout the last season, was announced Tuesday. For three weeks, last year's "Quarterback" series was among Netflix's top 10 series globally.
The WWE deal gives Netflix the rights to carry Raw in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Latin America, with additional countries to be added as contracts expire. The bigger component, though, is that Netflix becomes the carrier of all WWE shows and specials outside the U.S. and the company's premium live events, including WrestleMania and SummerSlam.
That's why Netflix would be unlikely to explore bidding on a piece of the NBA package when negotiations open in a couple months, or UFC when ESPN's rights come up for renewal in a year, unless it contains additional countries.
"If they commit to the sport, care about the fighters and every match they're doing, understand what the human values are, want to promote and relate to it, yeah, it can be good," said Lampley, a boxing announcer who called fights on ABC and HBO for over 30 years and currently does work for PPV.com. "If they are looking to make quick, incidental money based on cultivating a few big names and creating events that look like they might be meaningful events, but mostly aren't, then it's not good. It's just noise."
"I've got nothing against Jake Paul. Mike is a dear friend. I wish him well in everything that he does. But a 57-year-old Mike Tyson against somebody I know only as a social media figure, there's nothing that we can expect to be legitimate about that," he said.
"They've been totally around the edges (with live sports), but I still think this is going to get a lot of eyeballs," he said. "I think it's just a matter of time before they become much heavier players in this space."
There is never a shortage of great storytelling in sports. The ultra-competitive nature of many star athletes leads to intense rivalries, heartbreaking failures, and inspiring redemption arcs. It can also lead to outright criminality, as more than a few people in the sports world have broken the law and gotten caught, or worse yet, gotten away with it.
Netflix has become the go-to streaming service when it comes to nonfiction storytelling in sports. Among their best offerings are 2 Oscar winners, some addictive binge-worthy docuseries, and even a couple of hilarious underrated gems. These are the 9 best sports documentaries you can watch on Netflix right now.
The sexual assault allegations against Dr. Larry Nassar and the subsequent cover-up of those allegations by USA Gymnastics shocked the country. It was difficult for many Americans to accept that a sport often portrayed as pure and wholesome was, in fact, hopelessly corrupt. Athlete A does a remarkable job of not only giving voice to the survivors of Dr. Nassar and USA Gymnastics, but also unveiling the journalistic process that exposed these shocking crimes to the world. Athlete A is a meticulously reported documentary that serves as a potent warning to the rest of the sports world and perhaps even society at large.
Netflix had its first successful live stream with a Chris Rock special in March 2023. However, in April, the company decided to follow this up with a live showing of the Love is Blind reunion, a dating show with a significant global following. While the former went without a hitch, the latter saw a technical issue which resulted in millions being unable to access the stream.
That leads to the question of whether Netflix needs to invest in live sport, and honestly the simple answer here is no. Ampere runs an annual survey among online sports fans and in nearly all markets surveyed, Netflix is the top over-the-top (OTT) platform used to watch sports content. There has been double-digit growth in engagement with Netflix for sport content in all markets, with the highest increases coming in Indonesia, Italy and South Africa.
It is a similar story with the popularity data. Netflix accounted for more than 50 per cent of the 15 most popular sports documentary titles on SVoD services in July 2023, with Amazon a distant second with only two titles in the list.
For now, sports documentaries are here to stay and, having binged on Tour de France: Unchained and the Mark Cavendish special over the summer, I for one am not complaining. The fact that I watched those and went on to watch the Tour de France for the first time ever means the good ones are also still doing their job.
For rights holders that are able to partner with a SVoD platform and build up interest in their league or competition more broadly, which can then feed into higher media rights deals with other broadcasters, it feels like a win-win all round.
Netflix has become the home of incredible sports documentaries. 2023 was another fantastic year for new documentaries, and 2024 is also shaping up to be another strong year for sports documentaries on Netflix.
Box to Box Films has already extensively covered Formula One, Tennis, Golf, and Cycling. Moving into the world of track and field, Box to Box will take a deep dive into the world of competitive sprinting, which has always been one of the most anticipated events of every major tournament and the Olympics.
With the conclusion of the La Liga 2023/2024 season, Netflix has finally unveiled its release date. The series will follow all the drama across the season, from relegation scraps to title-chasing to the impact on local communities.
ngel Di Mara, whose career spans almost 20 years, has soared to the top of world football but also faced many challenges and pitfalls. The documentary will focus on the life and career of Di Mara, whose career has seen over 900 appearances for club and country, over 200 career goals, and winning prestigious titles such as the FIFA World Cup with Argentina and the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid.
In selecting the standout sports documentaries and docuseries on Netflix, we turned to Rotten Tomatoes to ensure a baseline level of quality. Each title chosen boasts a score of at least 70%, reflecting a general viewer consensus. This benchmark was set not only to highlight acclaimed productions but also to guarantee that each feature would offer compelling storytelling and exceptional production quality.
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