Jake Paul fights Mike Tyson NFL on Christmas Day and Beyoncé’s Super Bowl-level performance turned out to be great for Netflix’s business.
The streaming powerhouse reported new subscriber records in the final quarter of 2024 – nearly 19 million – bringing its total subscriber count to more than 300 million. (As of Wednesday morning, Netflix stock was up.)
The company was quick to point out the success of its late-year sports programming, including the Paul Tyson boxing match and the NFL Christmas doubleheader, which included a halftime show opposite Beyoncé that Netflix also put together on its own, and is ultimately attracting more viewers. Of football matches.
Antenna market research company estimated Netflix attracted more than 650,000 new subscribers in the days surrounding NFL games. According to the antennathe Paul Tyson fight generated over 1.4 million sign-ups.
The company laid out its sports programming strategy in its letter to shareholders issued on Tuesday:
“We are not focused on acquiring the rights to big regular-season sports shows. Instead, our live strategy revolves around delivering can’t-miss special event programming,” the company said.
This positions Netflix as a kind of “anti-ESPN.”
By design and necessity, ESPN spends its rights budget amassing a huge volume of regular-season sports packages. The network’s currency is live games, so it spends heavily on those programs. (This large amount of live games will become even more important for ESPN as it launches its direct-to-consumer sports platform — currently codenamed “Flagship” — later this year.) Moreover, ESPN/ABC may have the most highlights In the history of sports media such as the upcoming Super Bowls, the NBA Finals, the College Football Playoff, the Stanley Cup Final and more.
The luxury position Netflix finds itself in is evident in its acquisition strategy. It doesn’t need all the live sports – it just needs enough “big, memorable” (in its own words) live sports to keep the audience engaged.
With a market capitalization of $370 billion — and growing, if Wednesday’s stock price rise compared to Tuesday’s quarterly report is any indication — along with its massive global audience, Netflix can pick and choose what it decides is “can’t miss.” You are supposed to spend more than anyone in the market.
That’s the main reason why the Christmas Day football experience is so important — for both Netflix and the NFL.
Netflix needed to test whether fans would move from traditional NFL streaming platforms to streaming games on Netflix, and they certainly understood that Amazon Prime Video’s Monday Night Football proved that concept.
Netflix went all out, hiring dozens of on-air personalities from other networks and, of course, paying Beyoncé to do a halftime show that wouldn’t have looked out of place at the Super Bowl. The reward included being the most-watched NFL game ever on a streaming platform.
Netflix has the right to stream Christmas Day games again in 2025, and since December 25 is a Thursday, they will air on the same day as an Amazon Prime Video game.
Naturally, the NFL is thrilled: They’re getting a new, big-money entrant who can pay big in rights fees, getting the product in front of a global audience of a few hundred million people and showing a broadcast that looks and sounds similar to what fans are used to.
Netflix is the natural (highest) bidder for a new package of NFL games, whether it’s a new “18 game,” an international package or something entirely new (like NFL on Christmas Day, which was previously a boycott NBA).
Now class in WWE. Netflix stole WWE’s Monday night live show and launched weekly shows earlier this month. Although this seems to fit the description of the “big regular season sports package” that was allegedly set aside, WWE’s Monday night show feels more like a “special event” than “multiple matches per week.”
What is considered a sports-related “special event”? It also happens to be one of the few premium live sports packages available right now?
UFC fights. Keep in mind that WWE and the UFC share a parent company (TKO Holdings), so Netflix’s $10 billion investment in WWE could be a show of commitment regarding future deals involving the UFC. ESPN exclusively owns full rights until next year. Sources familiar with the discussions said the UFC would consider splitting packages between multiple carriers The athlete.
Netflix also made a splash last month, securing the rights to stream the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. And no one should be surprised when Netflix uses this as a step towards having the Men’s World Cup available next. In 2030.
As demonstrated in the Paul Tyson fight and, earlier this year, in the live “roast” of Tom Brady, Netflix’s live programming team has no shortage of a desire to value unconventional ideas, an appetite for streaming them, and deep expertise. Pockets to get.
In another interesting development, Netflix’s presence in the sports space has shown that leagues need the streaming device more than Netflix does. This is 180 degrees different from traditional networks.
ESPN, Fox, NBC and CBS would likely survive if they lost the NFL, but they would no longer be dominant forces in sports entertainment culture. NFL games may have helped Netflix, but if it hadn’t had those two for Christmas, it’s hard to believe its earnings report would have been radically different, given its steady output of shows like Squid Season 2. “Game” and movies starring celebrities.
The same applies to Amazon. Its Prime Video service is the leader in sports among digital gamers with its NFL and NBA deals. However, if Amazon decided tomorrow – they don’t have long-term deals – to give up gym games, would they sell one less box of paper towels?
We’re in the midst of a great reassembly of how we watch sports. The biggest long-term competitors to ESPN’s supremacy and the top position of traditional networks are Amazon and Netflix. While leagues, like the NFL, really want digital players to become more invested in their games, there’s a long-term issue at play: Will Netflix shift more of its strategy to sports?
It will be unclear whether or not Netflix gets the UFC, and it’s hard to imagine the sport being anything but a boon to Netflix’s relatively new advertising layer.
How all of this plays out over the long term could have an impact not only on how your matches are watched, but also on the financial makeup of the sport.
(Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
