Netflix has big ambitions for live sport
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The holiday season is a time for family, food—and, at least for some people, American football. As in previous years, teams in the National Football League (NFL) played on Christmas day, watched live by millions.
Unusually, though, the broadcaster this year was Netflix, which live-streamed two games (and a musical interlude by Beyoncé). That it went off with only minor hitches was a gift for the company. Netflix’s previous forays into live sport have at times been shambolic.
A celebrity boxing match in November between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was beset by technical problems. “We crashed the site," Mr Paul bragged after he beat his 58-year-old opponent. A live golfing event featured broken microphones and an animal-rights protester.
Netflix has big ambitions for live sport. American Football is set to stay in the streamer’s Christmas line-up for at least the next two years. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Raw, a hit show, will leave traditional TV for a weekly spot on the streaming site from January 6th.
Netflix has also bagged the American rights for the next two women’s football (soccer) World Cups. Netflix used to insist it would stay on the sidelines when it came to screening live sport. Cost was one reason.
Broadcasting rights are expensive: the NFL pocketed $75m a game from Netflix for this year’s Christmas screenings, and the decade-long WWE deal cost a knockout $5bn. Then there were the technical challenges. Handling so many concurrent viewers is a headache for a streaming service designed for fragmented viewership.
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