[#16] Netflix and its sports strategy

Netflix has always had a lot of titles, but recently the content made & marketing done of sports  documentaries seem to have exponentially increased. Some of the shows I watched over the last few months are:

Nyad: This is about how 64 year old Diane Nyad swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida, in close to 60 hours and became the first swimmer to achieve this feat. It gives a pretty detailed perspective on the mental aspect required, and how, more than the physical, it’s the mind that needs to be trained while undertaking feats that test human endurance to the limit

Beckham: If you’ve read the David Beckham (My Side) & Victoria Beckham (Learning to Fly) autobiographies, then there is nothing new here to learn, but I’d still recommend a watch just for feels. 

Colin in Black & White: This is about the early life of Colin Kapernick (former NFL QB), and along with following him as he pursues sports and figures out what sport he wanted to play, also showcases the challenges that he faced as the biracial son of a white adoptive family - the narrative is overlaid with a broader commentary about the history of race and racism in America

The Redeem Team: This is about the 2008 USA basketball team, and the name is given as a call out to the 1992 Dream Team that won the gold at the olympics. After the disappointing 2004 olympics, where they won the bronze, this is a behind the scenes look at the pressures, and the expectations of the Redeem Team to bring the gold medal back to the States. 

Others on my list are Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive, which follows a freediver as she aims to break the record for longest distance traveled under ice in a single breath. She first started free-diving as a way of therapy after an injury. Captains of the World - a BTS view of the 2022 Football World Cup is another.

I did watch other excellent pieces of content that were not on Netflix - Free Solo, and of course the All or Nothing Series on Amazon, the Arsenal and Manchester City ones were particularly good. But the breadth of sports documentaries (in my opinion) is far more on Netflix than on other platforms that I’m on. 

The theme is clear. For Netflix atleast, they’re not going behind live sports to acquire / retain users (contrary to the JioCinema strategy). To bulk up their sports arsenal, Netflix, instead of betting on live sports, is taking the “behind the scenes'' approach, where instead of spending a bomb on the live sports rights, they’re instead spending to take exclusive rights to create a mini-series leading up to and about the event, which has a lot more staying power than live sports. F1 S6 will be out soon. Breaking Point, which is the much hyped , but overrated show on the Grand Slams (tennis), Full Swing (follows the top golfers in the world) have all been renewed. And this could also be why Netflix screening is part 1 & part 2 of its shows (The Crown Season 6 being the most recent victim of this) in different months - its all about getting the user to renew their subscription again.

Think about it this way - after the live event, I may not really watch the match again apart from some highlight reels here and there. But I have a higher chance of going back to a tv show about it, and that seems to be the theme that Netflix is playing on. I’ve talked about the cost comparison in more detail in a previous article I wrote, you can check it out here.

Apple & Prime Video (globally) seem to have a different strategy. They ARE investing in live sports. Take the rumors that have hit the market recently - Apple reportedly is willing to pay upto $2B for F1 streaming rights. Amazon signed a 13 year $13B deal to stream the NFL. But there is a reason why. Apple & Amazon are platforms that offer an ecosystem of products other than entertainment, so their retention strategy is different. Here the user loyalty is to the platform, and not just to the live sport content, which is the case for pure-play streaming platforms such as Hotstar & Netflix. 

Apple & Amazon are creating this to be able to increase the LTV from the customer by upselling more products. Apple has its entire product ecosystem - the Iphone, Airpods, Apple Watch, Mac, TV etc. The Amazon subscription doesn’t just cover streaming, it also covers free shipping, prime music, gaming, photos, and many other perks. So then once Apple & Amazon get a user on board, content is not the only thing they then try to offload. Amazon’s real business is e-commerce sales, and a Prime Member on average spends about $1400 annually, as compared to $600 by non-Prime members. (link to source here). This is also further shown by the fact that Amazon reportedly paid close to $100M to stream just 1 NFL match - the first NFL match being played on Black Friday. (traditionally the start of the shopping season, and known for the deep discounts offered on this day - Amazon strategically could use this to digitally influence sales, and funnel users into their e-commerce platform). They already have a captive customer. They’re solving for what else they can sell the customer. 

And that’s why the JioCinema strategy of procuring the IPL rights, and then giving it for free makes more sense. They already have a plethora of products, and what they don’t, they’ll build/buy/acquire. The customer already has a reason to stay. Netflix essentially is solving for both acquisition and retention. Amazon and Apple already have retention solved for. They are just solving for acquisition.