Yet another media giant is clamoring for the NFL’s domestic media rights just four years after the league’s record-setting $111 billion TV deal.
Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria has announced the streaming giant’s interest in the league’s Sunday afternoon package – something that currently costs Fox and CBS a combined $4 billion per season.
Asked by Matt Belloni and John Ourand of Puck for the specific game package Netflix would be seeking, Bajaria said the streaming giant is ‘definitely’ interested in Sunday afternoon games.
Such talk might seem a bit premature, especially after the league’s record-setting media contract with CBS, Fox, ESPN/ABC, NBC and Amazon, not to mention the $150 million Netflix spent to stream Christmas Day games in 2024.
That historic media deal is set to last through the 2033 season. However, as Bajaria is well aware, the league can opt out of its individual pacts with Fox, CBS, or NBC, although not Disney’s ESPN/ABC.
Curiously, Bajaria’s tone differs from that of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who recently called the prospect of bidding on sports media rights ‘extremely challenging.’
Vice President, Unscripted and Documentary Series at Netflix Brandon Riegg, Chief content officer Bela Bajaria and quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes at ‘Quarterback’ premiere in 2023
NFL Network’s Kay Adams was a key component of Netflix’s first foray into live football
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‘If there was a path where we could actually make the economics work, for both us and the leagues, we would certainly explore [it],’ Sarandos said during a fourth-quarter earnings call. ‘But right now, we believe that the live events business is where we really want to be.’
Still, Netflix has recently added WWE Raw to its menu of live entertainment and averaged 30 million viewers globally for its Christmas Day doubleheader hosted by NFL Network’s Kay Adams.
Those NFL games benefitted from a relatively clear and stable stream for viewers – something that eluded Netflix during the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight in November.
Fans on both sides of the Atlantic faced poor image quality, prolonged buffering and spotty audio throughout Friday’s undercard.
Meanwhile, hundreds online complained of error messages, while ‘#unwatchable’ began trending on X.
And according to Downdetector, which tracks online outages, more than 80,000 customers were experiencing issues by 10:35pm New York time on Friday.
Despite this, Netflix still declared Tyson-Paul a success as a reported 65 million households tuned into the event.
The Ravens’ Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson react during Netflix’s Christmas Day stream
‘This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,’ Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone wrote to employees, as reported by Bloomberg.
‘We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success,’ Stone added.
What’s more, The Times recently reported Netflix could also bid for Formula 1’s US rights.
Meanwhile, as Netflix has grown more interested in live sports, the price of the service’s standard monthly membership jumped from $15.49 to $17.99 in January. The highest-priced Netflix package now sits at $24.99, while the lowest plan – albeit, one that includes advertisements – sits at $7.99.
