Netflix is planning to live stream its first sporting event this fall. The company is in the development phase to create a golf tournament, featuring celebrities, professional golfers, and stars of other sports content.
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The Netflix logo is seen on the Netflix, Inc. building on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California on October 19, 2021.
Netflix's First Sporting Event
A celebrity golf tournament is currently in talks for Netflix to live stream, featuring professional golfers and Formula One drivers. According to a report from The Verge, the celebrity-driven golf tournament will be set in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will be Netflix's first foray into sports streaming.
Executives from the company have been debating for more than a year regarding live streaming for sports, given that this effort is high-stakes, expensive, and hard to execute. While this could possibly be released this coming fall, discussions about the tournament are still in the early stages and could lead to different plans.
While the company has been very vocal about its interest in live sports for years, Netflix has always said that they are still looking for the right moment to enter the game. Choosing golf as its first live sports event could be a strategy from the company to prove to leagues and advertisers that it can handle more complex events.
As of the moment, Netflix has been heavily invested in documentaries and behind-the-scenes content to attract its subscribers about sports on the platform. Through this, the planned golf tournament would offer a new way to sample live sports programming without paying a package like for matches in the major leagues.
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By comparing to its rivals, Netflix had not yet figured out how to bid for big-league sports rights in a way that was profitable for their business. Wall Street Journal reported the company is still considering other opportunities and its stance regarding live-streaming might change. Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos stated last January, "We aren't anti-sports, we're pro-profit."
Previous Live Events
Last March, Netflix launched its first live-streaming content, featuring comedian Chris Rock as he debuts a comedy special live on the platform. The Guardian reported that he became the first to conduct a live comedy act on the streaming service, which opened some doors for other programs on the platform to adapt to the live treatment.
While Netflix managed Rock's live special without any hiccups, the company experienced an outage during a reunion live episode of the reality show Love is Blind. The show experienced delays last April after the platform goes down, affecting 75% of its users and experiencing 12,700 outages.
Other big streaming platforms have already started to pay for major sports-rights packages in an effort to draw in new subscribers and attract advertising sales. Reuters reported that Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video have already added sports to their lineups after acquiring the rights to major league soccer and NFL's Thursday night games.
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