AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
This year, die-hard NFL fans might have one more thing to add to their holiday wish list - a subscription to Netflix. On Christmas Day, the streaming giant will air two live NFL games, bringing American football and a Beyonce halftime show to viewers not just in the U.S., but around the world. It's not the first time Netflix will host live sports, but it is the company's first foray into pro football, a move that's sure to bring in millions of eyeballs and could alter the landscape of live television. John Ourand is here to tell us more. He covers sports and business for Puck News. Thanks for being with us.
JOHN OURAND: Thank you for having me, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So as I mentioned before, Netflix has hosted live events before. There was last month's boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, as well as a live reunion last year for the reality show "Love Is Blind." How have these live events gone in the past?
OURAND: Well, there have been a couple of hiccups, particularly with the boxing match. When people did get in - sometimes, there were too many people that were watching, so everything got buffered. The video wasn't as clear as people are expecting when they watch live events.
So one of the main things I'm going to be watching for Christmas is to see whether people have problems coming in to watch the NFL games. And particularly, as you mentioned, when Beyonce ends up being the halftime show - we know from the Super Bowl, the halftime show gets the highest ratings by far for the game 'cause there's a crush of people that want to come in to see that.
But really, this is a short-term problem. Amazon has proved that it can get tens of millions of streams and still provide a quality broadcast with no buffering. I have no doubt that Netflix will get there. I do have some doubt whether they'll be able to get there next week or not.
RASCOE: What's in it for the NFL? There is that risk of technical issues. Even if that's just short term, they're also competing against Christmas Day NBA games. So what is the upside for the NFL?
OURAND: Oh, there's huge upside for the NFL. The - all of the sports leagues have been praying and trying to cajole Netflix into coming in and being a serious bidder for these rights because if Netflix comes in to be a serious bidder for these rights, it's like buying a house. So if you get more than one bidder, the prices are going to go up. And what you have now is that you have NFL packages that all of the broadcast networks have...
RASCOE: Yeah.
OURAND: ...That Amazon has. If they get one more bidder involved that could say, like, oh, you know what? I want to take "Monday Night Football" off of ESPN, and that bidder has deep pockets like Netflix, sports rights are going to continue to soar.
RASCOE: Are the viewers, the fans - are they making the jump to streaming? Right now, it seems like they'd need a cable package, Amazon Prime Video. They might need Peacock. Are they going to have to add Netflix to the list? I mean, this could be a lot just for the fan to keep up.
OURAND: You know, you mentioned the NFL. Imagine being a New York Yankees fan, and you need to get Roku, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime. You need to get a cable subscription to watch it on YES Network. All the leagues know that fans are getting disenfranchised by having these games going across so many different outlets like that.
Right now, they're still in a little bit of a testing mode, so yeah, you're going to have to get a Netflix subscription if you want to watch every single NFL game in addition to cable, in addition to Amazon, in addition to - there was an exclusive game on Peacock as well. There's an exclusive game on ESPN+. That is going to change eventually, I would assume.
RASCOE: Netflix has secured the streaming rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cups. What does that tell you about the company's kind of longer-term strategy when it comes to sports?
OURAND: There are going to be a lot of headlines about this deal saying, here comes Netflix. But really, this is still kind of dabbling in sports to me. Netflix had the opportunity to get a significant NBA package, and it declined to do that because that wasn't going to be a couple of hundred million like the Women's World Cup rights. That was going to be an investment in the billions of dollars, and they're not quite ready to make that sort of statement yet.
But you certainly see where the trend line is going, and when the next batch of rights are up by the end of this decade, which is when Major League Baseball rights are up - the NFL is going to potentially be up in 2029, 2030 - this is a step toward then to where we'll be looking to see if Netflix is really serious or not.
RASCOE: That's John Ourand. He covers sports and business for Puck News. Thank you so much for joining us.
OURAND: That was fun. Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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