Netflix is no longer just in the ‘sports-related’ business. On Wednesday, the streaming giant announced that it had signed a three-season deal with the National Football League, including servicing two Christmas games this year. This is the first time Netflix has partnered with a major sports league, and it likely won’t be the last.
The move follows Netflix’s increasingly aggressive push into its live events business. Over the past two weeks, “The Roast of Tom Brady” has been the most-watched English-language TV program. As part of the Netflix Is a Joke live comedy festival in Los Angeles, a quirky six-day John Mulaney talk show went viral. The stand-up special ‘Katt Williams: Woke Foke’ has been viewed 4.3 million times.
“Last year, we decided to invest heavily in live, leveraging our massive fan base across comedy, reality TV, sports and more,” Bela Bejaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a statement. She said, “There is no live annual event, sport, etc. that can compare to the crowds that NFL football attracts.”
The streaming business has matured in the U.S. and should continue to grow despite Netflix being the dominant service. With subscriptions at a relative peak in the U.S., growth in other revenue streams is critical to the company’s success. Among them, advertising is the most important.
At a time when more people are dropping their traditional cable subscriptions, live sports remain catnip for advertisers because viewers are guaranteed to live. This is especially true for the NFL, which remains a ratings juggernaut.
Last month, Netflix announced that its low-cost subscription service, which offers ads for about a year, grew 65% in the first quarter of this year. Netflix has a total subscriber base of approximately 270 million worldwide.
“This shows how seriously Netflix takes advertising, because they don’t do it unless you’re fully committed to how big they think this is going to be,” said Richard Greenfield, media and technology analyst at Lightshed Partners. “He said. . “This is them investing in the land, saying, ‘We’re here and we’re going to grow much bigger in advertising and it’s actually day one.’”
Netflix has also committed to so-called live sports-related programming. In January, it signed a multibillion-dollar, 10-year deal for exclusive streaming rights to World Wrestling Entertainment’s flagship weekly wrestling show, “Raw.” And in March, it was announced that a boxing match between Mike Tyson and social media influencer Jake Paul would be broadcast live in July.
This NFL deal is a first for Netflix, but is a continuation of the league’s streaming strategy.
Amazon began streaming Thursday night games exclusively on its Prime service starting in 2022. Last January, NBCUniversal debuted NFL playoff games on Peacock, giving the streaming service exclusive rights to playoff games for the first time in league history. The company paid $100 million for the rights and had 23 million viewers, calling it “the most streamed live event in U.S. history.” (NFL playoff games traditionally attract about 30 million viewers.)
For the past two years, the NFL has challenged the NBA’s stronghold during the winter break by broadcasting three games on Christmas Day. As part of the new deal, Netflix will stream at least one game during the holidays in 2025 and 2026.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is leaning toward streaming as broadcast TV continues to decline in popularity.
“Our fans are on these platforms.” Mr. Goodell spoke to reporters the week of the Super Bowl. “Our fans want access to this stuff. Technology is special. You can do things on some of these platforms that you can’t on linear platforms. For us, this is part of the future.”
Netflix games will be simulcast for free on TV broadcasts in the competing teams’ cities, but Netflix and others will likely make bigger investments in the NFL and other sports in the coming years. For example, streaming is already playing a role in current negotiations for future rights to show National Basketball Association (NBA) games.
Analyst Mr. “This feels like a watershed moment for linear TV,” Greenfield said. “It’s a pretty big deal for television to have the king of premium streamers say we’re actually in the sports business. It doesn’t matter what this means now. It just shows that there is another serious bidder for the sports rights.”
Emmanuel Morgan Contributing reporting from New York.
