Netflix hopes for a live sports knockout with a fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson
A showdown between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and social media influencer and fighter Jake Paul on Friday is the latest one-two punch from Netflix as the media giant hopes to cash in on the sport’s sprint into streaming.
The showdown between the generations is all about a crossover hit, with 58-year-old Tyson bringing in the old guard and 27-year-old Paul, who found early fame on YouTube and appealed to the younger, screen-filling social media crowd. junkies. .
It’s available at no extra cost to all of Netflix’s more than 280 million subscribers and could be a welcome change for American boxing fans who are used to spending extra money on watching big matches on legacy broadcaster HBO.
“The trend in all sports right now is moving some of their properties to streaming,” said Bob Dorfman, a veteran San Francisco-based sports marketing analyst.
“These are two big personalities – it has the potential to be the biggest streaming sporting event.”
US subscription television network HBO announced in 2018 that it was removing live boxing from its programming, ending a 45-year relationship with the sport and leaving a broadcast vacuum.
Netflix has dabbled in sports content before, with showcase golf and tennis events and the wildly popular docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” which has increased the popularity of the auto racing circuit in the US.
The fight at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the first live boxing event, works in favor of Netflix’s strategy of offering its own content that viewers can’t find anywhere else.
While the fight will not have traditional advertising, there will be sponsors whose messages will be part of the live-streamed event.
Advertising isn’t a major contributor to the streamer’s current revenue, although its ad-supported base is growing rapidly, with 70 million subscribers this week, up from 40 million in May.
The mega-event is the sign of an enduring love affair between sports and streaming, says Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports, though he predicts streaming and traditional broadcasting will coexist for the foreseeable future.
“This is a one-time event… It’s more of a novelty in my opinion. It’s not going to change the industry,” said Pilson, president of Pilson Communications.
“The industry is still going to be driven by the league deals (like) MLS, NFL, Major League Baseball.”
Amazon Prime picked up Thursday Night Football in 2021 and MLS signed a 10-year mega deal with Apple TV in 2022 worth a reported $2.5 billion.
Major League Baseball also signed a deal with Apple for “Friday Night Baseball,” a weekly doubleheader, in 2022.
Leagues are increasingly interested in streaming as it reaches a global audience, including younger viewers, who don’t watch traditional television.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber said the Apple streaming platform will allow MLS to better capitalize on the sport’s global fan base.
“We saw how difficult it is to get an audience and get the economy right in local and regional television – we saw that in 2018,” Garber said this week at the Paley International Council Summit.
“We wanted to go to market with a global package… We have a subscription that is global, all of our 600 games are treated as ‘Monday Night Football’.”
© Thomson Reuters 2024
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
