Talk of Netflix acquiring an NFL game package may be premature, judging by comments made by its co-CEO on Wednesday.
When asked by Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw whether the streamer will pursue an NFL package when the league opts out of its current media rights deals, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said Wednesday that acquiring a full package of games “doesn’t really fit with our strategy as we understand it right now.” Peters, who was appearing at the Bloomberg “Screentime” event, restated the longstanding Netflix approach to live sports as part of a broader ‘event’ strategy.
Netflix, Peters said, has to be “disciplined” in focusing on what is profitable for the company. “Some of these big league sports things, we don’t actually have a way to figure out that math.”
The comments poured a bit of cold water on the prospect of Netflix making a push for a larger NFL presence. The streamer is in the second of a three-year deal to carry Christmas Day NFL games and is widely expected to be in the mix for any additional negotiations the league might have in the coming years.
Between NFL owners’ desire to expand its season to 18 games per team and commissioner Roger Goodell’s stated intention to open up the current media rights deals as soon as next season — three years before the league is contractually allowed to opt out — there should be no shortage of NFL inventory on the market in the near term.
Peters’ statements also ran counter to what another Netflix executive, Bela Bajaria, said on a podcast earlier this year. Asked directly to predict whether Netflix would have an NFL package in five years and what package it would be, Bajaria said she would “definitely want the Sunday [afternoon] games.” But Bajaria did not explicitly state that Netflix was interested in such a package, instead prefacing her comment with “if the answer is yes.”
While Netflix has become a greater and greater factor in sports rights negotiations, it has thus far remained committed to its ‘event’ strategy, acquiring U.S. rights to once-a-year — or once-every-four-years — events like the aforementioned NFL Christmas games and FIFA Women’s World Cup and Japanese rights to the World Baseball Classic. The streamer is reportedly close to a deal to acquire the MLB Home Run Derby, MLB Opening Night and at least some portion of the league’s “special event games” (such as the league’s “Field of Dreams” game).
None of the Netflix deals to-date commit the streamer to a weekly drumbeat of regular season games. Even a so-called “premium package” of games, akin to what MoffetNathanson analyst Robert Fishman suggested to Andrew Marchand earlier this year — is likely to require a cost and commitment that would go beyond the streamer’s current deals.
