Almost immediately after Netflix unveiled plans for its first-ever original live sports broadcast and production, the streaming giant threw cold water on the idea of becoming a major player in pursuing further live rights.

“We are in the sports business,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call. “But we’re in the part of the sports business that we bring the most value to, which is the drama of sport.”

Netflix added 9 million subscribers in the third quarter, and will raise its premium service price from $19.99 to $22.99.

The recent Netflix Cup announcement — a live golf event on Nov. 14 featuring athletes from the PGA Tour’s “Full Swing” and Formula 1’s “Drive to Survive” — stoked interest across the industry as Netflix finally made its long-awaited entry into live sports.

For now, the company doesn’t want investors getting any big ideas. 

“No core change in our live sport strategy or licensing [of] live sports,” Sarandos said. “We are investing heavily in increasing our live capabilities so that as the demand grows for that and we find different ways, the liveness can be part of the creative storytelling, we want to be able to do that at a big scale.”

Put Up Or Shut Up

The Netflix Cup will mark a pivotal moment for the media company: Its first attempt at a live event was a disaster earlier this year when it was unable to air the Season 4 reunion of its hit dating show “Love Is Blind.” 

A second poor showing around a live event could damper investor expectations for any future endeavors in the space.

MLS is entering its final matchday of the regular season on Saturday with five of its 18 postseason berths still up for grabs — but the league has already seen groundbreaking numbers off the field in 2023.

Across the league, attendance has hit the 10.4 million mark — and could reach nearly 11 million — surpassing last season’s record figure of 10 million. Additionally, a league-record seven clubs should break their average attendance records. Four clubs sold out every regular-season match this year.

A large portion of the growth can undoubtedly be attributed to the arrival of Lionel Messi, who joined Inter Miami in June and has since propelled the league’s worst club to its first ever Leagues Cup title and back in the playoff hunt before injuries slowed down their run. 

During the attendance spike, Messi helped drive season ticket sales for not just Inter Miami, but other clubs, too. Apple’s MLS Season Pass saw a huge spike in subscribers after Messi’s arrival, unsurprisingly. Next month, Inter Miami will put MLS on a global stage with a two-match tour of China.

But even before the Argentinian legend came to the U.S., MLS season tickets were up 9% — a record figure for the league, according to Forbes. And match attendance was up 5%. The league’s online store set revenue records in late February and early March — and then Messi became the most-sold jersey of the season within 45 minutes of his jersey launch and the most-sold jersey in the history of MLSstore.com within three days of the launch.

But with the MLS Cup Playoffs beginning next week, the league will look to keep the momentum growing without its biggest star.

Another day, and yet another high-profile sports figure is being linked to Formula 1.

The latest news comes around McLaren Racing, which since 2020 has reportedly had under-the-radar financial backing from Rob Walton — the Walmart heir with a net worth of around $70 billion, who was a driving force of the Walton-Penner group’s $4.65 billion purchase of the Denver Broncos in August.

Walton invested in McLaren’s F1 team through his family office at the same time as MSP Sports Capital, according to Bloomberg. The U.S. investment group acquired a minority ownership stake in December 2020 for about $195 million, valuing the team at nearly $600 million

While Walton’s investment is not new — and actually came before he was known to be a bidder for the Broncos — Thursday’s revelation continues a trend of notable figures becoming more involved in F1.

Just this week, the Alpine F1 team announced that Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce had become new investors, joining a star-studded group that led a $210 million cash infusion over the summer. New investors also include Rory McIlroy and boxer Anthony Joshua, who join existing investors with Hollywood fame Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, and Michael B. Jordan.

Expansion Update

American racing figure Michael Andretti has cleared significant hurdles in his efforts to lead an expansion group for an 11th team on the F1 grid — which could be another opportunity for interested U.S. sports figures to potentially buy into F1 further.

The Premier League is under contract with its current media rights partners through the 2024-25 season, but the U.K. soccer behemoth is already planning for its next set of deals.

An auction process for domestic broadcast rights to the EPL is underway as dealmakers are offering five separate packages to split up about 270 games per season for four years, according to the Financial Times. 

Currently, Comcast-owned Sky Sports, TNT Sports (a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery formerly known as BT Sport), and Amazon Prime Video are paying about $2 billion per year collectively for EPL rights.

The bidding process doesn’t necessarily mean that five different broadcasters will acquire the available packages, which would range from 42 to 65 matches each. However, no single company will be able to buy more than four of the packages. The incumbent partners are expected to bid, as well as sports streamer DAZN.

While the goal remains to increase the current media rights revenue — about $6 billion over three years — the average annual value could fall, some executives told the FT. There is no clear timeline for when winning bids will be announced.

Soccer In Demand

European soccer rights are dominating the news right now, as fellow top leagues in France and Italy are in the process of striking new deals.

Serie A just received bids for domestic rights that fell short of their $1 billion annual average goal. Meanwhile, Ligue 1 may consider playing regular-season matches in the U.S. to entice higher fees for its international deals.