Netflix is officially a player in live sports thanks to a stunning victory in winning Women’s World Cup rights for the next two tournaments in 2027 and 2031.
The streamer has long been on the outside looking in at live sports while big tech competitors like Amazon, YouTube, and Apple entered into the space. But that has slowly changed in recent months as the company has picked up WWE Raw on a weekly basis and special events like the NFL on Christmas Day and the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight. But they hadn’t yet secured a major sports package.
Until now.
On Friday morning, Netflix stunned the sports media world by announcing it had won the US rights to the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cup tournaments.
Netflix has exclusive U.S. rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the 2027 and 2031 tournaments. pic.twitter.com/aY3QYcLgAe
— Netflix (@netflix) December 20, 2024
Puck’s John Ourand had reported that an outsider had placed the winning bid when it came to FIFA putting the tournaments on the marketplace. The conventional wisdom in the industry was that outsider was DAZN, which won rights to the Club World Cup as the only company to meet FIFA’s asking price of $1 billion. DAZN recently received an investment from Saudi Arabia, which was just awarded the 2034 men’s World Cup. That’s FIFA for you.
However, DAZN was just a red herring. The real outsider here is Netflix, which is a total gamechanger for the live sports scene in America. With all due respect to the sports entertainment world of the WWE and the one-offs the streamer has acquired, this package is a huge deal and finally cements them as a major player for major sports rights packages.
Here’s more from the FIFA announcement:
FIFA and Netflix have signed a historic agreement relating to the exclusive rights in the United States to the 2027 and 2031 instalments of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in what represents a landmark announcement for women’s football.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup will be the first competition to be acquired in full by Netflix, which further reinforces the tournament’s status as the single biggest women’s sporting event on the planet and provides an outstanding platform to further promote the game.
The historic deal will provide US-based fans with unparalleled access to every match live and to immersive coverage, including star-studded studio shows in what is set to be an unprecedented celebration of the women’s game. The agreement includes Puerto Rico and covers all languages, with top-tier talent poised to feature in a dual telecast for both English- and Spanish-language broadcasts in the US.
With FIFA separating the deals for the men’s and women’s tournaments, whoever would win the Women’s World Cup rights would theoretically have a fast track to possibly winning rights for the men’s World Cup as well. If Netflix were to replace Fox Sports as the home for all World Cup rights, it would represent a tectonic shift in the sports media space.
There will be plenty to write about in the months and years ahead about what Netflix’s broadcast lineup will look like and what ratings they will be able to draw with friendly timezones and the rising interest in women’s sports helping their cause. And if their streaming platform can hold up unlike what we saw for the Tyson-Paul fight.
But for now, December 20th, 2024 will stand as the date that Netflix officially entered into the arena in live sports rights in America. And every linear television network and streaming platform better take notice.
