๐๐ฎ๐น๐บ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐๐ป: ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ด ๐ก๐ฒ๐๐ณ๐น๐ถ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ ๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐; ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฝ ๐ถ๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐น
News this week that Netflix will broadcast two NFL game on Xmas day. Is this the long-awaited Netflix move into sport, allowing all to shout โI told you soโ? I think not, yet.
Netflix is a subscription business and one day of sport cannot sustain a sports fan with no promise of regular sport to follow. And there is no path from this initiative to a regular NFL offering; those contracts are locked up.
Pricing is said to be $150m for two games, a steal compared the going rate of $100m or more (see Peacock and Amazon). Why would Netflix spend at this level if it is not the start of a live sports offering? Better to think of this as marketing spend, to nudge sports fans to sign up for Netflix, hoping, especially over the Xmas period, they find other content they like and remain subscribers.
Netflix must think this is efficient marketing spend, better than linear TV ads and discounted new subscriber deals. It probably also suggests subscriber acquisition is getting harder, that existing โroutes to marketโ are saturated. And hints that sports fans, homes still with cable, are the next pond for Netflix to fish for further growth. But NFL is merely the lure, it is for other content to hold them when they sign up.
Might we see this sort of trick in the UK, games held back from long-term contracts for one-off auctions? First the question of money. $150m sounds a huge sum, but itโs ยฃ120m and, dividing by five for population, is ยฃ24m or ยฃ12m per game. This is above the average price of a PL game, but plausible for a big game.
It would not work today. Most sports bodies here sell rights to all games, so they have nothing to sell. Others, like the PL, selling 200 of 380 games, promise not to sell any further games, so are precluded from springing a surprise like this.
What about next time? Perhaps not Xmas day, but could they withhold a game or two around key shopping dates and hold an spot auction between streamers keen for a marketing gimmick. It might be a better way to generate revenue from Amazon, Netflix and Apple.
But itโs probably only a trick for the PL (or other major European football leagues) to consider. You donโt want to end up like the RFU, unable to find a broadcaster for an upcoming Japan vs England game. Not a good look.
Meanwhile, all is calm once more re the FA Cup, it is not all going behind the paywall as the BBC has secured 14 matches per season. Curious that reports have TNT selling rights to the BBC. In the past, the FA would deal with all broadcasters direct, but here it seems they have sold all rights to TNT and required them to on-sell. So did the FA bank a fixed sum for all rights and leave TNT carrying the risk of what a free auction would bring? If so, brave move by TNT.