Netflix shuns live sports but embraces sports documentaries
BY THE fourth season of Netflix’s documentary series about Formula 1, Drive to Survive, the streaming company had plenty of evidence that it was on to something: Ratings and attendance for Grand Prix events, as well as merchandise sales, were surging.
So Netflix executives began discussions with the show’s producers: What other sports are out there?
“It really showed us that the ceiling was much higher than we might have thought,” said Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice-president of non-fiction series.
On Wednesday, Netflix’s latest sports documentary series, Full Swing, which focuses on men’s professional golf, became available, just weeks after its tennis-focused series, Break Point, debuted.
For years, Netflix executives have resisted paying for the rights to carry live sports, even as streaming rivals such as Amazon, Apple and YouTube have chased them aggressively.
Netflix is instead pursuing a more modest strategy, building out a sports line-up focused on telling the stories beyond the leaderboard – and at a considerably smaller cost than for licensing rights to live games.
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It is not clear if either Full Swing or Break Point will come close to matching the impact of Drive to Survive. Ratings for the Australian Open men’s tennis final, which took place a little more than two weeks after Break Point was released, hit a decade low.
Nevertheless, Netflix executives are confident in focusing on leagues that have not “really been covered in an exhaustive way compared to some other sports”, said Riegg.
And professional golf and tennis are bursting with enthusiasm at the prospect of gaining access to Netflix’s 230 million paying subscribers and are hopeful of the kind of bump that Formula 1 received from Drive to Survive.
For some time, the PGA Tour has been looking to do a documentary series to help raise golf’s profile. In June 2017, tour executives met with Netflix officials to discuss the possibility of a series. Netflix passed at the time because it had not yet figured out its sports strategy and the concept was “too unbaked”, Riegg recalled.
But by the next year, with the debuts of series such as Nailed It! and Queer Eye, Netflix began investing heavily in unscripted television. A documentary about Aaron Hernandez, a football player who was convicted of murder, was a hit in early 2020, and Drive to Survive became a hit shortly thereafter.
For years, live sports rights have been a topic of nearly constant debate in Netflix leadership meetings. But even as executives have considered it, they have always settled in the same place: The company’s money is better spent elsewhere.
“We’re not in the business of live sports rights. We’re not in the business of renting,” Riegg said.
Netflix is open to doing documentary series on more popular American sports such as football or basketball, Riegg said. But it would need the access and the full editorial control that Formula 1, golf and tennis have given it.
“Whether it’s live sports or documentaries or shows or fictional shows about sports, sports resonate with almost everybody in some way, so Netflix knows that,” said Chris Wandell, a PGA Tour executive who was central to the negotiations about the documentary series.
Not long after Netflix’s cameras began rolling, men’s professional golf turned into a soap opera, with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund investing billions of dollars into the rival LIV Golf, a league that drew the defections of several major PGA Tour players, including Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson. Over the past year, there have been lawsuits, as well as heated debates over ethics, greed, power and human rights.
Like Drive to Survive, the series focuses on behind-the-scenes storylines, and producers gained access to players’ locker rooms, homes and private jets. Stars such as Koepka, Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth are featured, as are lower-profile players like Joel Dahmen.
“As soon as they said all of the people from Drive to Survive are coming over and are going to do this, that’s immediate credibility,” Dahmen said.
Netflix has not yet committed to a second season of Full Swing. But at last week’s Phoenix Open in Arizona, Full Swing camera crews were conspicuous.
Even if it does not reach the heights of Drive to Survive, many players feel that Full Swing can only be a boost to the tour.
“If we can just get a fraction of that, we are doing pretty well,” Morikawa said. NYTIMES
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