Netflix CFO: Season-long sports packages are ‘a pretty tough business’

For years, Netflix insisted that it would not pursue live sports rights.

The streamer focused its content budget on licensed programming, high-value originals, and even local content for countries outside the U.S. There was no live content on the platform for many years.

The dam finally broke earlier this decade with live comedy specials, combat sports events, and even a late-night show from John Mulaney. Sports followed as part of Netflix’s plan to “eventize” its content verticals. Now, the streamer airs live NFL games on Christmas Day, and over the next year-plus will enter into Major League Baseball and women’s soccer with live rights to big games.

But in an appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference this week, Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann again pumped the brakes on the expansion of Netflix’s live sports output. Neumann called season-long live sports distribution a “tough business,” and suggested Netflix is not interested in bidding for those rights at this time.

“We think about sports as, we love sports but it has to work for us as well. For our members and for our business,” Neumann told investors.

“So for us, sports is part of our overall live event strategy. So as part of live, sports is a subset of that. We don’t love the business of … big seasons of big sports. We think that’s a pretty tough business to be in, and we don’t think we need it to (improve) member value.”

Neumann mentioned that Netflix recently added rights to the World Baseball Classic in Japan and the FIFA Women’s World Cups in 2027 and 2031 in the U.S. These are examples of what Netflix sees as big live sports events that bolster its offering of live content.

Last year, Netflix’s VP of sports programming, Brandon Riegg, stated a similar stance on live sports, calling sports rights a “necessary risk” for the company to make, but adding that he wasn’t “convinced” that a full season of games was a smart business move.

Neumann echoed that sentiment this week.

“We’re excited for those opportunities and continuing to build on those opportunities and finding ways that sports can be a nice complement to our business, in terms of the big sports events,” he said. “But we’re going to stay disciplined in terms of how we invest in sports.”