Netflix currently lays claim to two NFL games, both of which come on Christmas Day.
But at this point, it appears to be a matter of when the streaming giant will add more.
Appearing on The Town with Matthew Belloni, CNBC’s Alex Sherman discussed Roger Goodell’s presence at this past week’s Upfronts, which saw the NFL commissioner make appearances on behalf of Netflix and Google. And when it comes to the league’s relationship with the former, Sherman shared an interesting conversation he had with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, who revealed that his company was actively attempting to acquire the rights to more games.
“I spoke to Ted Sarandos. He admitted to me, like, ‘Yeah, I talked to Roger Goodell on the side about adding even more games beyond our two Christmas games. We just need to figure out a way to eventize these games,’” Sherman shared before hypothesizing: “Maybe the NFL works with Netflix and gives them a package of 15 games that they can figure out how to eventize.”
As Belloni questioned how many additional games the NFL can extract from its schedule for such packages, Sherman concurred that it’s hardly an ideal situation for the league’s currents rights partners, who continue to lose games such as Google’s Week 1 showcase, the Netflix Christmas Day doubleheader and Amazon’s Black Friday game. Ultimately, however, this is the leverage the NFL currently possesses, as evidenced by Goodell’s star-like presence at this week’s presentations.
“It certainly seems like the ultimate show of power to me, right?” Sherman said. “What they’re doing is essentially taking games away from traditional partners and throwing them toward theoretical new bidders in five years for even more robust packages of games that are currently owned by the traditional partners.
“And what can the traditional partners do about it? Can they take a stand and say, ‘No more NFL.’ No, they cannot. They are completely tied to the NFL. They are desperate. They are unbelievable bidders because of their desperation. Roger Goodell knows this, so it is a fantastic situation for the NFL.”
Sherman also noted how the NFL’s approach stands in stark contrast to the NBA’s, with the basketball league showing a more loyal approach to its active rights partners.
“If you talk to [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver, he says it’s important for us to only have two or three partners… because we don’t want consumers to be overly confused about where they have to find a game and we don’t want them to have to spend too much money,” he said. “The NFL does not care.”
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“They know people will find it,” Belloni agreed.
In the short term, it will be interesting to see which additional NFL games Netflix will inevitably be able to land and what the streamer will do to eventize such a package. But as Sherman and Belloni both alluded to, the bigger story here is what the league’s growing relationships with streamers such as Netflix mean for its future rights deals, with the NFL having the ability to opt out of its current agreement following the 2029 season.
