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Dwayne ”The Rock” Johnson and John Cena in motion throughout WrestleMania XXVIII at Sun Life Stadium on April 1, 2012 in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Ron Elkman | sports activities Imagery | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
Netflix co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos needs to make one factor clear concerning the firm’s deal to license WWE’s Raw for the subsequent ten years: Professional wrestling is not sports activities.
“WWE is sports entertainment,” Sarandos clarified throughout Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings convention name. “It’s really as close to our core as you can get in terms of sports storytelling. In terms of the deal itself, it has options and the protections we seek in our general licensing deals, and with economics that we’re super happy with globally. So, I would not look at this as a signal of any change to our sports strategy.”
After Netflix and WWE mother or father firm TKO Group introduced the deal Tuesday morning, it sparked questions on whether or not Netflix would attempt to purchase streaming rights for one of many main sports activities leagues. But Sarandos repeatedly tried to place these discussions to relaxation.
Netflix has held some preliminary discussions with the National Basketball Association for potential streaming packages which will come up because the NBA renews its media rights later this yr, CNBC reported in October. Still, given the league’s need to restrict itself to 3 media companions, Netflix probably would not play a significant function in negotiations, CNBC reported on the time.
Sarandos’s feedback recommend Netflix will not be a near-term participant in these talks or any others relating to conventional dwell sports activities rights. Netflix has dived in to “sports adjacent” programming, constructing documentary collection round Formula 1 {and professional} tennis, golf, biking and soccer.
Netflix paid greater than $5 billion for 10 years of WWE’s Raw and different worldwide programming. The deal has an out clause for Netflix after 5 years, and contains an choice for Netflix to increase for a further 10 years.
Sarandos known as the WWE Raw deal “the inverse of Formula 1,” as WWE is fashionable within the U.S. and has a comparatively small worldwide viewers.
“We can build [WWE] like we have with Formula 1 through our shoulder programming,” Sarandos mentioned. “Now, the events themselves are the storytelling with WWE. So, this is a proven formula for us.”
Still, Netflix executives have developed a fame for altering their thoughts on key enterprise points. For years, Netflix stayed away from promoting and cracking down on password sharing. They’ve reversed course on each topics lately.
The transfer to pay a large rights deal is a transparent shift for Netflix. Pushing into conventional sports activities might ultimately be a logical step for the corporate — it doesn’t matter what Sarandos mentioned Tuesday.
WATCH: MNTN’s Mark Douglas weighs in on Netflix-WWE deal
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