Netflix is rumoured to be preparing to enter the live sports broadcast arena, though perhaps not in the way you might expect.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Netflix is working to put together a celebrity golf event featuring stars of its Full Swing and Drive to Survive programmes. And yes, only one of those shows is actually about golf, with the latter being about Formula One motorsport.
Despite the glitzy, celebrity-driven nature of this Las Vegas-set tournament, it would still represent a first for Netflix. For all the streaming giant’s many programme types, it has never before ventured into live sports broadcasts.
This is one of the key differentiators between Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, with the latter broadcasting limited Premier League football, NFC American football, US Open Tennis, and New York Yankees baseball games. Reports towards the end of 2022 suggested that Amazon was even looking to launch its own dedicated sports broadcasting app.
Netflix doesn’t appear to be seeking to rival Amazon with this celebrity golf tournament, but it could well be a step along that path. It would be a relatively cheap and risk-free way of trying its hand at sports broadcasting.
It’s claimed that Netflix wanted to follow up the success of its Drive to Survive docuseries with Formula One coverage in the US, but lost out to ESPN for the broadcasting rights.
Besides the sports content itself, Netflix isn’t particularly familiar with live broadcasts of any kind. In April it messed up a live broadcast of a Love Is Blind reality show reunion, with an hour-long outage. Needless to say, such an outage would be disastrous for any major sporting event.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos referenced the company’s cautious approach to sports back in January when he said “We aren’t anti-sports, we’re pro-profit”. The company simply hasn’t figured out a way to bid for sporting content in a profitable manner, he said.
