(New York) Netflix has acquired the rights to at least four NFL games, a first for the platform which is seeking to carve out a special place in the world of sport.
Posted at 11:44 p.m.
The video-on-demand service will broadcast two matches on Christmas Day 2024 and at least one match on the same date in 2025 and 2026, according to a press release published Wednesday.
According to Wall Street JournalNetflix will pay $75 million to broadcast each of this year’s two matches.
For several years, the giant of streaming multiplies the forays into the world of sport.
But until now, for him it was more about producing sports documentaries or creating his own events on the sidelines of major competitions.
He thus launched the documentary series Drive to Survive on Formula 1, Break Point about tennis or “ Tour de France: at the heart of the peloton.
The platform also produced a golf tournament, the Netflix Cup, as well as a tennis match, called Netflix Slam, between the Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.
On July 20, it will also host the broadcast of the match between ring legend Mike Tyson and boxer and YouTuber Jake Paul.
In January, it took a step forward by signing a ten-year broadcast agreement with the American professional wrestling league WWE, for $5 billion.
But Netflix had so far stayed away from traditional competitions, officially deeming their cost too high.
“There is no annual event, whether sports or not, that is comparable to the NFL in terms of audience,” explained content manager Bela Bajaria, quoted in the press release.
Some 39 of the 50 best audiences of 2023 in the United States were achieved by NFL games, including the 14 largest.
The two games broadcast by Netflix this year will respectively pit the two-time defending champions, the Kansas City Chiefs against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans against the Baltimore Ravens.
During a conference organized by the Moffett Nathanson firm, Netflix vice-president Spencer Wang indicated on Wednesday that it was not a question for the platform of “making a big investment in sport” but of expanding its catalog one-off events likely to generate audiences.
2024-05-16 03:44:19
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