Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria indicated during an interview with Alex Sherman of CNBC last week that the streaming platform is interested in bidding for rights to the FIFA men’s World Cup.
Netflix already has the English- and Spanish-language rights in the United States and Puerto Rico to the FIFA Women’s World Cup for next year and 2031. Bajaria said Netflix has a “great partnership and relationship with FIFA,” and is “definitely always going to have those conversations.”
If Netflix ended up landing rights for the tournament, it would mark the first time that the tournament was exclusive to a streaming platform in the United States. Sherman has previously reported that FIFA is likely to bundle the English- and Spanish-language rights for the next two World Cup tournaments in one package. Several companies have publicly indicated potential interest in World Cup rights, among them Prime Video, ESPN and Fox Sports.
Netflix is already preparing for next year’s Women’s World Cup, reportedly “closing in” on a deal to add longtime Telemundo soccer announcer Andrés Cantor to its coverage. In a recent interview with Richard Deitsch on the “Sports Media Podcast,” Netflix VP/global live sports and entertainment Gabe Spitzer said that the company is “deep into planning for talent hires” and that women’s soccer fans would recognize some of the names on the roster.
Over the last several years, Netflix has launched and subsequently fortified its advertising tier, which the company said reaches over 250 million global monthly active users. Despite constituting about 1% of viewing hours on the platform, live events are seen as fueling customer acquisition as Netflix seeks to grow its user base.
“I think having advertising partners — [for whom] obviously sports is a great place for them to reach [with] a lot of global eyeballs for sure — I think that is one factor in doing it,” Bajaria said. “But ultimately, we have about a billion people around the world that we entertain, and we know people love sports … I think that’s just always going to continue to be a part of it.”
Netflix already televises a broad array of sports under its “eventized” approach, most notably NFL and MLB events. When asked about its current deal with the NFL — which includes four games per season beginning next year with a path to continuing to carry Christmas doubleheaders, along with the NFL Honors ceremony — Bajaria said the streamer seeks out rights based not on availability, but strategic fit.
“It’s not so much just because these rights are coming to market, like, ‘Let’s just do that and lock up all these things,’” Bajaria said, preceding such by citing the company’s relationships with major leagues. “It really is, ‘Is this the right strategy?,’ because it’s also very important to us that there’s events that we may create of our own. It’s very important to us that we continue to invest in film and TV around the world, and so there’s lots of different aspects to it.”
Netflix last week carried the NFL International Series game from Australia, averaging a 7.9 rating and 18.5 million viewers — on par with last year’s Week 1 international game on YouTube, which used a custom Nielsen methodology. The streamer owns global rights to all of its NFL games this season, which includes a Thanksgiving Eve matchup, Christmas Day doubleheader and Week 18 game.
“If you’re a member in São Paulo or Germany or London, you’re going to click on Netflix and there it is, super easy, watch it, and that’s really important for our members,” Bajaria said. “We know how to sort of connect with that audience, and I think that’s all part of the larger slate, which I know is sometimes harder for people to understand because our strategy is just different than other people have done it.”
