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Netflix’s first live-streamed sporting occasion might be coming this fall. The Wall Street Journal stories that the corporate is in talks to create a brand new, celebrity-driven golf event in Las Vegas that would come with a number of the stars of different sports activities content material on the service like Drive to Survive and Full Swing. (Disclosure: Vox Media Studios produced Full Swing, and The Verge lately produced a sequence with Netflix.)
The talks are apparently early, however a customized, talent-driven golf event makes excellent sense as Netflix’s first foray into sports activities streaming. Streaming stay sports activities is high-stakes, laborious, and costly, and the offers for big-name occasions are ever more cutthroat. (Netflix was reportedly attempting to wrest Formulation 1 protection away from ESPN, however failed to take action.) There’s a cause that ESPN’s first-ever broadcast was of a slow-pitch softball game, and that Yahoo broadcast a London NFL game within the wee hours of the American morning earlier than attempting something extra sophisticated. And even these extra conservative makes an attempt don’t always go well.
Netflix’s personal live-streaming popularity isn’t precisely sterling, both. In April, its Love is Blind stay reunion present was such a spectacular failure that the service canceled the stay facet of the present altogether. It did, nevertheless, handle to stream a Chris Rock comedy special with none hiccups.
Netflix has been excited about stay content material since at least 2022, and has signaled its curiosity in sports activities for years, however has all the time stated it’s on the lookout for the correct second to get within the recreation. To this point, the corporate has invested closely in documentaries, to nice success: a lot of folks credit score Drive to Survive with single-handedly making Formulation 1 in style in the US, and Full Swing and Break Level have been hits for golf and tennis as effectively. The corporate is even signed as much as do an NFL model, known as Quarterback, that’s scheduled to drop this summer time.
A one-off golf event might be a take a look at case for Netflix — or a sign of technique
A one-off golf event might be a take a look at case for Netflix to show to leagues and advertisers that it might probably deal with extra complicated occasions. It is also a sign of technique: the corporate has proven it might probably use documentaries and behind-the-scenes content material to make folks care about sports activities they beforehand knew nothing about, so possibly Netflix’s sports activities technique shall be extra underwater hockey than NHL hockey and extra toe wrestling than WWE. They might give Netflix loads of content material to stream, and loads of good mental property to make reveals about. Don’t be stunned to see Netflix’s sports activities community appear to be Drive to Survive, however for each sport you may probably think about.
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