One of the world’s most popular soccer clubs is reportedly at the center of a bidding war for the rights to capture the story of its current trials and tribulations.
Amazon and Netflix are each bidding millions of dollars to Manchester United for the rights to make a documentary series about the club’s current season, per The Sun.
The two media giants are reportedly willing to pay exorbitant amounts to make the hypothetical program following the success of Amazon’s docuseries on Arsenal that debuted earlier this month.
Per a source for The Sun, “Amazon paid about [$11.7M] for the All or Nothing series… But producers would be willing to go much, much more than that if they could get access to the biggest club in the world.”
Man U itself would provide compelling content, as the source adds, “The story of the rebuild of Manchester United under Erik ten Hag, the future of Cristiano Ronaldo, and the campaign to remove the Glazer family from the club is like a Hollywood movie in itself.”
United’s popularity — especially in the U.S. — is undeniable: Last week, the club’s match against Liverpool set a viewership record for Peacock.
Manchester City and Tottenham have appeared in previous seasons of “All or Nothing.” The series has also made seasons with football, hockey, rugby, and soccer teams in other leagues and federations.
Netflix — which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its founding Monday — dipped its toes into Premier League docuseries when it produced “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” in 2018. It has had its most success in sports programming with the F1-centric “Drive to Survive” series.
