A Netflix executive says the streaming company is interested in acquiring the rights to a package of National Football League (NFL) games played on Sunday afternoons.
Speaking with Puck News co-founder Matthew Belloni, Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said she “definitely want(s) the Sunday (afternoon) games,” but did not say whether the streaming service has engaged with anyone at the NFL about acquiring the rights to those games in the near future.
The current NFL television agreement allows CBS and Fox to air Sunday afternoon football games (except on the West Coast, where some games air late Sunday morning because of the time zone difference). NBC has the rights to “Sunday Night Football,” while Disney’s ESPN airs “Monday Night Football.” All four broadcasters share rights to the Super Bowl on a rotating basis.
The NFL’s broadcast rights package runs through the 2033 season, but the league has the option to terminate most of its agreement four years early, which would allow the NFL to negotiate rights with other stakeholders in the media and entertainment space.
Over the past few years, Netflix has aggressively pursued rights to live events, including sports, as it builds out its advertising business and seeks to grow and retain subscribers. In December, it aired two NFL games on Christmas Day, and is expected to offer more Christmas Day NFL games over the next two years. It also has the rights to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) programming and is rumored to be interested in pursuing domestic rights to Formula 1 races.
Whether Netflix has the ability to chase NFL rights on a regular basis is something of an unknown. During a recent conference call with investors, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was asked if the company was interested in pursuing full season sports rights, to which he affirmed the economics of such a plan would be “extremely challenging.”
“If there was a path where we could actually make the economics work for both us and the league, we certainly would explore,” Sarandos stated. “But, right now, we believe that the live events business is where we really want to be — and sports is a very important part of that expansion.”
Later in the call, Sarandos was asked to comment on whether the company would pursue other sports rights in the future, and he restated his belief that full-season sports broadcasting is a complicated endeavor. He noted the company’s recent deal with WWE and its pursuit of FIFA Women’s World Cup rights helped bring in a “more-global audience than linear television” that skews younger, and on economic terms that worked for the company.
Related: NFL boosted traditional TV viewership in January, Nielsen report shows
The NFL is another story, one where broadcasters shell out big for the rights to live games. Google-owned YouTube TV is said to be paying around $2 billion each year for the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket, which offers games from CBS and Fox that are not airing on a subscriber’s local station or affiliate. The package is available through YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels, and was initially offered for $350 (YouTube TV) and $450 (YouTube PrimeTime Channels) per season; last year, YouTube raised the cost of NFL Sunday Ticket by $30.
Amazon is paying around $1 billion for rights to “Thursday Night Football,” which tend to pull in lower ratings compared to games aired on CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN/ABC each week. The company shells out more than $100 million each season for exclusive national rights to some NFL holiday and playoff games as well. All games are available on Prime Video, and also stream for free through Amazon-owned Twitch on phones and tablets.
