Netflix Can Do Live Sports That Are Made For Netflix

Netflix’s first foray into live sports won’t be a huge pro sports rights deal, and instead, is a celebrity golf event.

The planned tournament is fitting for the streaming giant, as it leans into what Netflix already knows – packaging sports as a mix of prestige drama and reality TV – and combines it with a half-step into live events. A celebrity golf event between athlete stars of Netflix series Drive to Survive (F1) and Full Swing (golf) can do low-stakes live sports, while also promoting other Netflix shows in the process.

A year ago, I expressed skepticism that live sports was the best short-term idea. In the time since, we’ve seen a slow embrace of the service’s ad offering and some hit-or-miss attempts at live events on Netflix. None of that has significantly altered its trajectory toward eventually being ready for live sports, in one way or the other. Yet you could argue that the company’s closer to live sports now than ever.

That’s not because of the celebrity golf event. Honestly, there’s little chance it goes wrong for them, and the absolute worst case is that it’s less entertaining than some of its reality hits. Which… that’s fine, and exactly what any streaming service should expect with an event like this.

The fact is that the TV marketplace is going to push Netflix in that direction, especially as linear audience holdouts increasingly transition to streaming environments.

For instance: Seven of the 11 most-watched shows on national linear TV this past week were sports, according to Inscape data. And we’re not even in fall, when premium sports programming is at its peak.

Doubt that Netflix’s younger-than-linear audience is as interested in sports? Tubular Labs data shows that sports has accounted for nearly 13% of U.S. media and entertainment views on YouTube so far this year.

The key for Netflix’s eventual foray into live sports, of course, will be making sure that it happens at its own speed and on its own terms.

Netflix has been smart to move slowly on sports and get a read on its audience’s interests and the platform’s own capabilities around sports programming in general and live streaming in particular, It’ll get even more sophisticated about that over time. And once it feels confident in how it can move ahead with live sports content, Netflix can do so with a more assured level of success.

Look no further than Amazon to see how this all goes right. Prime Video – and Twitch – spent years building out capabilities and understanding their audiences around live sports. So when Amazon finally took the plunge and became the exclusive home of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package, it was with a product it (and consumers) had confidence in.

Apple, you could argue, rushed into airing MLB games and results were mixed. But it learned enough early that it was able to condition fans that they could watch live sports on Apple TV+... leading to the 10-year MLS contract (that’s already paying dividends now that Lionel Messi will join Inter Miami). 

So Netflix will eventually have a more robust live sports offering because as Ted Sarandos said himself last year, the company is not anti-sports, it’s just pro-profit. Sports rights can hamper profits, though it’s arguably also the only thing left that streaming services can add to bring in new U.S. subscribers – aside from cracking down on password sharing, which is providing a temporary bump but is not a long-term business strategy. 

Sports is, for better or worse. Though Netflix doesn’t have to compromise what it is in order to embrace live sporting events. And it’s already showing that it doesn’t need to compromise for sports either – which is ultimately the smartest play as it plots the course ahead.