Plenty of eyebrows were raised when Netflix was chosen as the lead broadcaster for the equally unusual boxing bout between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson taking place tonight (15 November)
This marks Netflix’s next foray into the world of live sports broadcasting after years of executives at the world’s leading streaming company denying any interest in showcasing live sporting events on its platform.
But the worst kept secret in sports broadcasting was revealed last March when Netflix picked up the rights to showcase the boxing bout between Tyson and Paul after agreeing a deal with the latter’s MVP Promotions.
It is almost a free swing for Netflix to test its capabilities in producing live sports content on its platform. The eight round, two minute fight affords the streaming giant flexibility to create unique graphics and leverage its expertise in documentary storytelling it has hung its hat on for years now.
Netflix has produced ‘Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson’, a three-episode docuseries designed to build up anticipation for the boxing match and dive deeper into the personalities of two popular, yet often controversial figures.
Paul, the 27-year-old social media influencer turned boxer, has a large digital following that he has leveraged to garner interest in his boxing fights. Meanwhile, nothing more needs to be said about the popularity of Tyson, once the baddest man on the planet and the biggest draw in boxing back in his prime.
Combining both men’s popularity with Netflix’s 282 million subscribers worldwide, the event is almost certain to bring in some of the largest boxing viewing figures of recent years.
However, boxing analysts and fighters have heavily criticised the upcoming bout, even throwing into question if this is a real boxing match at all. The 58-year-old Tyson is 31 years older than Paul and has not fought in a professional boxing match since 2005.
But for Netflix, if all goes to plan, the one-off fight could be the start of the company laying down the foundations for future live sporting event broadcasts, but tonight’s bout is not the first time it has done this.
Balancing storytelling and sports’ competitive nature
In a similar vein to Paul vs Tyson, Netflix has not gone all-in on acquiring professional sports league rights, rather, it has broadcasted exhibition events to dip its toes into its live streaming capabilities.
This was evident in November 2023, when it broadcasted ‘The Netflix Cup’, which saw Formula 1 drivers take part in a non-competitive round of golf with players from the PGA Tour.
Netflix also hosted ‘The Netflix Slam’, an exhibition tennis match between Spanish compatriots Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.
Both the Netflix Cup and Netflix Slam were produced and formatted in similar fashions, not too dissimilar to Paul vs. Tyson. Edging on the side of non-competitive sports but testing its live streaming capabilities for a company entering the space for the first time.
All these events may have acted as precursors for the eventual major 10-year broadcasting deal with WWE.
In January, TKO Group – parent company of WWE – confirmed that its weekly program RAW would be moving to Netflix for the next 10 years in the US, starting in the first week of January 2025, with all WWE programming becoming available to UK and other international Netflix customers that same week.
This was the first significant major move made by Netflix when it came to acquiring sports broadcasting rights, as it was competing with the likes of FOX and NBCUniversal.
But the WWE deal also falls in line with Netflix’s current approach to live sports broadcasting, selecting sporting formats that enable the streaming company to focus more on storytelling than opposed to the actual competition aspect of sport.
What is the long-term strategy?
So after the dust settles on Paul vs Tyson and Netflix kick-starts its deal with WWE in January, which other sports will the company look to bring onto its platform?
This was answered when Netflix picked up two NFL fixtures to be broadcast on Christmas Day this year live on its platform, the biggest indicator that the company is interested in hosting professional sports.
Broadcasting selected games is not uncommon now from the NFL’s broadcast strategy when it pertains to streaming platforms, and it has come with significant benefits.
NBC’s Peacock streaming service hosted a one-off game on its platform last January, the AFC Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, which went on to become at the time, the most-streamed live event in US history.
This bodes well for Netflix, as not only is live sports viewing on Christmas Day somewhat of a tradition in the US, the streaming company recently announced it has sold out all of its advertisement spaces for both games.
Whilst Netflix has been leaning into the storytelling aspect of exhibition-type sporting events, its package deals like the one with the NFL that gives audiences a larger answer of the type of sports broadcast strategy the company is moving towards.
This was no more evident when Co-CEO of Netflix, Ted Sandaros, explained the company’s live sports broadcast strategy during an investors call last summer.
Sandaros said: “It’s very difficult to have big league sports and profit when you offer them in entire seasons. But when you offer them in this event model that we’re building, we’re really excited about the opportunity to do that.”
“We’re not anti-sport. We’re just pro-profit. We have yet to figure out how to do it.”
Noting a risk of becoming held down by lengthy and expensive broadcast rights agreements with major sports leagues, one-off or package deal sports games appears to be where Netflix is heading in the coming years.
Who knows, maybe the company will host a package of midweek Premier League games for one week similar to Amazon Prime Video, or NBA games on important dates such as Martin Luther King Day. The company has afforded itself plenty of options on the table.
