Netflix executives have lengthy acknowledged that the streaming big wasn’t going to get entangled within the ever-expanding enterprise of stay sports activities rights, nevertheless it’s attainable that perspective is altering after the large success of the current Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson card.
With the corporate touting over 108 million viewers for the printed, Netflix subsequent dips its toe into the sports activities waters with a pair of NFL video games on Christmas Day earlier than welcoming the WWE in early 2025 after touchdown a $5 billion deal over 10 years for the promotion’s flagship collection Monday Evening Uncooked.
It’s solely attainable that Netflix’s subsequent main bounce into stay sports activities may come subsequent 12 months when potential suitors begin bidding for the UFC’s broadcast rights. UFC CEO Dana White didn’t low cost that chance even when he believes Netflix made a mistake by not getting concerned in stay sports activities a lot sooner, particularly after what simply occurred with the Paul vs. Tyson combat.
“I at all times believed it,” White mentioned about Netflix when talking to the Sports activities Enterprise Journal “I at all times thought that Netflix was loopy to not get into stay sports activities before they did. These guys really have a worldwide footprint. I feel they’re late to the sport. It was an enormous success.”
If there was one main grievance in regards to the Netflix broadcast for Paul vs. Tyson, it was the streaming concern that many viewers had with 65 million concurrent streams bombarding servers to look at the primary occasion this previous Saturday night time. That resulted in some viewers complaining that they couldn’t even get the occasion to load correctly whereas others have been coping with fixed freezing and lackluster image high quality all through the printed.
For his half, White says he didn’t really expertise these issues, however he believes Netflix used Paul vs. Tyson as a method to be taught extra about stay streaming earlier than the NFL lands there in December.
“I really thought it was sensible of them to [do this fight],” White defined. “I didn’t assume the occasion was a terrific occasion, however they wanted to do this. They knew Mike Tyson was going to herald huge numbers. Mike Tyson was going to tug an enormous quantity and this was a superb take a look at for them earlier than they begin airing the NFL. They’re saying it was over 65 million individuals tuning in on the identical time.
“I used to be in a lodge room in New York, and I didn’t have a foul expertise. It was slightly grainy right here and there, however I didn’t have a horrible expertise. I’ve seen another individuals say they did, however I didn’t.”
Whereas conversations about Netflix probably stepping into enterprise with UFC received’t even have an opportunity to begin till subsequent 12 months, White isn’t ruling out the opportunity of working with anyone as soon as negotiations start.
He praised the connection UFC has constructed with ESPN and Disney since inking a deal to maneuver all the promotion’s programming there in 2018, however White is aware of there are going to be loads of networks hoping to get into enterprise with the MMA superpower within the close to future.
“We’re the most important pay-per-view supplier on the planet,” White mentioned. “I feel we’re going to do very nicely going into this subsequent deal.
“I feel as we go into our negotiations in 2025, this factor may play out in a number of other ways. Clearly we could possibly be with Disney and ESPN for nonetheless a few years or you can see all our content material get chopped up like WWE and NFL does and totally different merchandise going to totally different networks. I don’t know the way that’s going to play out as we get nearer to stepping into these negotiations, however it’s a chance.”
