Netflix Kicks Up Sports Content With FIFA Women's World Cup Deal

Continuing to build on its live sports content -- to attract even more premium advertisers -- Netflix has inked a major deal with FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The U.S.-based agreement gives the streaming platform exclusive rights to the 2027 and 2031 event and “represents a landmark announcement for women’s football,” according to the companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The World Cup 2027 event will take place over a month-long period (from June 24-June 25), pitting 32 national teams against each other. Netflix will broadcast English- and Spanish-language versions.

Last year’s 2023 Women’s World Cup U.S. broadcast rights were shared between Fox Sports and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo.

All four matches the USA team appeared in for that event averaged 3.8 million Nielsen-measured viewers -- 2% higher than in 2019.

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The first game against Vietnam pulled in 6.3 million viewers -- then the most-watched U.S. soccer telecast since the World Cup men’s final in 2022.

This continues a slow effort by Netflix to amp up its live sports content. Recently, it aired a one-time boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, which pulled in record viewership and viewing minutes -- 65 million concurrent streams, 38 million of which were in the U.S., according to Netflix.

Next week, it will globally live stream two exclusive Christmas Day games -- Chiefs vs. Steelers and Ravens vs. Texans -- Netflix’s biggest push into major live sporting TV events. It also has secured at least one holiday NFL game for each of the next two NFL seasons.

Media-buying executives said Netflix had proposed advertising deals on a cost-per-thousand viewers (CPMs) of $35. Each of the games is projected to pull in 23.2 million viewers -- typical for high-profile NFL games on broadcast networks/streamers.

According to reports, Netflix is paying the NFL about $150 million ($75 million per game).

Next month it will begin exclusively streaming WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” -- the start of a 10-year deal.

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