Streaming giant, Netflix, is said to be in early talks to launch a celebrity golf tournament in Las Vegas this autumn, featuring professional golfers and Formula One drivers. The offering would also feature celebrities from the popular Formula One docuseries “Drive to Survive” and golf docudrama “Full Swing,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The move into the live sports arena is an attempt to attract subscribers, following in the steps of Amazon’s partnership with the NFL for its Thursday Night Football broadcasts and Apple TV’s airing of Friday Night Baseball with MLB. However, Netflix has had a mixed record with live events. A live Chris Rock comedy special in March was successful, while an attempted “Love Is Blind” reunion special in April faced delays.
Netflix is also reportedly bidding to purchase a stake in the legendary Pro-Am Golf Tournament, which takes place annually in Lake Tahoe, California. This tournament has a strong celebrity following and attracts a significant TV audience. Netflix would use its investment to support its sports-themed content, including documentaries like “Break Point” and “Unchained for the Tour de France.” However, it is unclear whether the investment in the tournament aligns with bigger plans. The move could signify that Netflix is interested in offering sports content without buying the rights, or it could indicate that more extensive forays into sports broadcasting could be on the horizon.
While discussions for the proposed golf tournament are still in the early stages, the offering could serve as a way for Netflix to show advertisers and leagues that it is capable of handling more significant events. Netflix has focused on behind-the-scenes content and documentaries to grow its sports offerings. The streaming giant has not bid for big-league sports rights, as executives have been debating the move to live-stream for more than a year. Live events like sports tournaments are high-stakes, expensive, and hard to execute.
However, reports suggest that Netflix is considering live sports coverage and has held discussions with several professional leagues. Competing platforms like YouTube, Peacock, ESPN+, and Amazon Prime Video have already invested in exclusive rights to live sporting events, which ran into the billions. Netflix executives have not been committed to live sports in the past, and co-CEO Ted Sarandos said earlier this year that renting big-league sports was not profitable in its subscription model.
It remains unclear whether Netflix’s bid for the Tahoe tournament signifies bigger plans to move into live sports broadcasting. Still, the reported discussions suggest Netflix is exploring a way to make sports events profitable by integrating advertisements into live coverage. This idea comes on the heels of launching an ad-supported tier last November.
