Why Netflix is going big on live sports with the NFL and WWE
January 21, 2025
Netflix has cemented its reputation as a leader in streaming entertainment, with its portfolio of scripted shows, films, and documentaries capturing large audiences worldwide.
However, 2024 marked a pivotal moment for the platform as it entered the live sports landscape with the National Football League as it broadcast two Christmas Day games.
Alongside a landmark partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and winning the broadcast rights in the United States for the 2027 and 2031 Women's World Cups, the streaming giant has demonstrated its ambition to become the dominant online platform for live sport.
Netflix's live sport strategy an unexpected U-turn
Stepping into the foray of showing live sport is not new for streaming platforms such as Apple TV and Amazon, with the latter having shown live soccer for the last 10 years.
Both platforms have rights to show various competitions and events, with Amazon UK for example holding English Premier League rights packages and Amazon's European arm - EU Sarl - owning the rights to show Champions League matches. Apple TV hold the global rights to showcase Major League Soccer (MLS).
Yet, as recently as December 2022 Netflix's co-CEO and chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, told a UBS Global TMT Conference that the company had "not seen a profit path to renting big sports.
"We’re not anti-sports, we’re just pro-profit," he said, adding Netflix "can get twice as big without sports."
However, Netflix's decision to make a 180-degree turnaround and enter the live sport market came because of an advertising-supported package they began offering to customers in November 2022, according to Jochen Losch, CEO of JL Sports Investment.
"Now they have moved also to the advertising business, all of a sudden they need advertisers," Losch, who has spent 25 years working in sports media rights markets, told DW.
"Netflix realized that live sports are one of the last things in the world which generates huge audiences and provides the most eyeballs, which you can't produce from anything else.
"It's also the last 'appointment TV' event. You cannot choose when you watch a soccer or American football match. You have to watch it when it is on, which creates its own hype."
A global reach like no other
Though it has been slow to welcome live sports, Netflix boasts a worldwide reach of 283 million subscribers, with a cash-content budget of $17 billion (€16.5 billion) a year.
It makes the streamer an attractive prospect to partner with, while making live events a comparatively small acquisition for the company to their yearly cash content budget.
In October 2024, the American football league entered a three-year partnership with Netflix, to showcase two Christmas Day games.
According to Netflix, the total cost of streaming the games between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Houston Texans was the equivalent of one of their usual medium-to-large films.
But, in return it gained them huge viewership figures with spectators from 218 countries and territories tuning in, as each game drew 30 million viewers worldwide.
"With Netflix’s global distribution, coupled with Christmas being Netflix’s biggest day, they were an ideal partner for the NFL as the league seeks to become a global sport," Alexander Steinforth, general manager of NFL Germany told DW.
The games helped make it Netflix’s most-watched Christmas Day ever in the United States and the NFL games amassed over one billion impressions across Netflix and NFL global handles on social media.
"We are immensely excited about what this partnership has in store," Steinforth said of the Christmas Day package.
Netflix was similarly enthusiastic.
"Opportunities like NFL Christmas games don't come up that often," a Netflix spokesperson told DW. "Netflix has always been entrepreneurial and bold in leaning into opportunities that gives the most value to our members."
A monumental WWE deal to launch 2025
Now Netflix has added World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to its lineup, with a deal reported to be worth $5 billion (€4.8 billion).
WWE Raw debuted in January 2025 as it began its streaming era, in a move that its chief content officer and former wrestling star Triple H has called "as colossal as WrestleMania."
The professional wrestling circuit has a dedicated fanbase with the live broadcast of the inaugural "Monday Night Raw" drawing 4.9 million viewers globally.
"WWE is great sports entertainment. It’s all about the drama of sport, which is Netflix’s sweet spot," the Netflix spokesperson said.
"It’s another area where we can deliver enormous value for our members as well as rights holders and talent."
For Netflix, a crucial part of why the WWE became such an attractive prospect was understanding that more families watch WWE together than the NBA, NASCAR, MLB, MLS, NHL or PGA Golf.
WWE is also tapped into Netflix' target demographic (18 to 34 years old) as the No.1 sports channel on YouTube based on subscribers and lifetime video views, ahead of even FIFA, and has more than one billion followers across its social media platforms.
"We want to continue to create unmissable live events for our members that generate global water cooler moments," the Netflix spokesperson added.
In an era in which streaming wars are heating up, Netflix’s live sports gamble may prove to be its next blockbuster.
Edited by: Chuck Penfold