How will Netflix Warner Bros. deal affect sports documentaries?

If you love documentaries, especially those focused on sports, you know there is a vast difference between what you see on HBO Max and what you see on Netflix.

HBO has a reputation for making high-quality docs. It has the resources and connections to align itself with great filmmakers. For example, Surviving Ohio State, produced by George Clooney, is one of the top documentaries of the year.

Netflix has a reputation for being inconsistent. It is capable of good work (Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal), but way too often, its docs are merely content lacking proper context and adequate journalism. For example, the Untold series’ Swamp Kings provided very little that was new and left some important details out.

Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. begs the question: Are sports documentaries about to get better or worse? The $82.7 billion deal includes Netflix acquiring HBO Max and HBO. No one is 100% sure what this means for the future. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has said that “HBO Max will stay.” However, the devil is in the yet-to-be-determined details.

Will HBO Max documentaries become more like Netflix docs? Or will it be vice versa?

A cynic might lean toward believing the latter. The overall quality of sports documentaries has been dropping in recent years as teams and individuals seek more control over monetizing their content. Also, the journalism required to make or acquire impactful documentaries, such as Surviving Ohio State, costs money. Is Netflix going to give the green light to something substantial like that when it can spend $320 million on The Electric State, which was a critical bomb but a hit for the streamer?

With Netflix in charge, a disheartening reality is that many decisions will likely be made purely for financial reasons. The $82.7 billion deal is going to have repercussions throughout for the media giant. And if costs need to be cut and approaches need to be changed, the Netflix way will likely prevail over the HBO way – disappointing news for fans who want more in-depth sports documentaries.

Bomani Jones says he blames Netflix for the anodyne documentaries, including in sports …. https://t.co/gCmfhpeLBd pic.twitter.com/FAqMS0FPiE

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) December 5, 2025

On a recent appearance on Andrew Marchand’s Marchand podcast, Bomani Jones lamented the state of sports docs.

“I blame Netflix for this, just to be clear, which is the idea that they don’t even want to buy a documentary unless the subject is involved in the production,” Jones said. “I’m like, ‘How does that make anything better?’ What sounds more interesting to you: an Eddie Murphy documentary with Eddie Murphy or without Eddie Murphy? Without Eddie Murphy sounds way more interesting, right? Without Eddie Murphy, I’m like, ‘Ooh, where’s the part where he says ‘I was just giving her a ride home?'”

The best documentaries are almost always by a neutral observer without a conflict of interest. They will ask the questions the audience wants to hear and not be beholden to the narrative the subject wants the public to believe. Unfortunately, the popularity of some, such as The Last Dance, has led streaming services and some studios to agree to the requests of the interviewee.

Perhaps we’ll luck out. Maybe Netflix will indeed not interfere with HBO documentaries.

The HBO name means something, and watered-down docs would harm its brand. Instead of HBO, HBO Go, HBO Max, or Max, Home Box Office might devolve into HBO Meh—the home of mostly mediocre sports documentaries.