The holiday season is a time for family, food and, at least for some people, football. As in previous years, NFL (National Football League) teams played on Christmas Day, watched live by millions. However, unusually, the broadcaster this time was Netflix, which broadcast live two games — and a musical performance by Beyoncé.
The fact that the event took place with only minor setbacks was celebrated by the company. Netflix’s previous forays into live sports have sometimes been disastrous. A celebrity boxing match in November between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was marred by technical problems. “We took down the site,” Jake Paul boasted after defeating his 58-year-old opponent. A live golf event featured broken microphones and an animal rights protester.
Netflix has big ambitions for live sports. American football will remain on the streaming service’s Christmas schedule for at least the next two years. WWE Raw, a hit wrestling show, will leave traditional TV for a weekly slot on the streaming platform starting January 6th. The company also secured American rights to the next two women’s soccer World Cups.
Netflix used to insist it would stay away from live sports broadcasts. Cost was one reason. Broadcasting rights are expensive: the NFL pocketed $75 million per game from Netflix for this year’s Christmas broadcasts, and the decade-long deal with WWE cost a staggering $5 billion ( R$30.5 billion). In addition, there were technical challenges. Handling so many simultaneous viewers is a challenge for a streaming service designed for fragmented viewing.
But major sporting events attract prestige and, more importantly, subscribers. For all its setbacks, Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson drew record viewership — and 1.4 million new subscriptions, according to Antenna Data, a research firm. Live sports offer plenty of downtime before and during games, making them well suited to commercial breaks, a lucrative source of revenue. Even subscribers to Netflix’s ad-free packages watched commercials during the NFL broadcast.
Challenges remain. To the relief of Netflix’s engineers, though perhaps not their bosses, the viewing figures for their NFL Christmas games were good but not exceptional. Viewership peaked at more than 27 million, about half of what was drawn by Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson. By comparison, the Super Bowl, the NFL’s biggest annual event, attracts well over 100 million viewers. Broadcasting to these crowds can be technically tricky.
Still, Netflix has plenty of other options. In addition to American football and the usual repertoire of classic Christmas films, the streaming service had another hit show on December 25th: a recording of a roaring fireplace.
Text by The Economist, translated by Lucas Bombana, published under license. The original article, in English, can be found at www.economist.com
