Netflix is in talks to live-stream its inaugural sports event, a celebrity golf tournament featuring professional golfers and Formula One drivers, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
The event, set to take place in Las Vegas, will showcase celebrities from the popular docuseries “Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing,” which follows professional golfers during the 2022 season.
This move will mark Netflix’s first venture into live-streaming sports, a topic that has been under discussion among executives for over a year.
While discussions are still in the early stages, the golf tournament presents an opportunity for Netflix to explore live sports programming without incurring the costs associated with major-league sports packages.
Unlike other streaming giants that have invested in securing rights to major sports events, Netflix has primarily focused on documentary programming.
The success of its “Formula 1 Drive to Survive” series has significantly boosted the popularity of the global racing league since its debut in 2019.
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated in January that the company is not opposed to sports but is driven by profitability. He acknowledged that Netflix is open to exploring opportunities in the sports realm if it aligns with their business interests.
In the past, Netflix bid for the live streaming rights of Formula One in the United States, but ESPN ultimately secured a three-year deal to broadcast the global race package.
The company has also shown interest in bidding for tennis and cycling event rights and has considered investments in lesser-known leagues.
While Netflix has experimented with live-streaming other forms of entertainment, their experiences have been mixed. The streaming platform successfully streamed a live comedy special featuring Chris Rock, but encountered an outage during the live stream of a “Love is Blind” reunion episode in April.
Netflix promptly issued an apology and re-recorded the event for release the following day.
