Who knows if Netflix is crossing its fingers behind its back, but the home video giant has vowed to stay out of the live sports streaming game, at least for now.
Here’s what Netflix head of content acquisition guru Ted Sarandos said about the possibility of picking up the NFL’s proposed live-stream game in 2022:
I will never say never, but I would say that where we sit today, I don’t think the on-demand to sports is enough of an addition to the value proposition to chase. I think the leagues have tremendous leverage in those deals, so it’s not like we’re going to get in and de-leverage the leagues. We’re going to go in and overpay like everyone else does, so it doesn’t get me that excited. Not to say that it wouldn’t someday, down the road, make sense. Today, I think there’s lots of growth in what we’re doing.
Being that Netflix has zeroed in on live “on-demand” streaming, the added cost of creating services for games in-progress might be intimidating new territory, and not worth getting screwy over a pro league that has tons more experience (and more to lose) in the execution.
Then again, the streaming market is wide open for Netflix, whose proven run assembling a platform for lots of original material makes them a player to consider, no matter the broadcast type. Obviously, the NBA, NFL and MLB are looking closely at Netflix’s plan because their companies would be the first to benefit from any improved streaming channel. They’d also need to watch competing leagues to find out how feasible live-streaming is beyond the world of television, where they’ve all happily played for decades.
Netflix will continue to guard its secrets as cable scrambles to keep up with all of the content challenges in the changing landscape.
(Via Awful Announcing, Re/code)
