Netflix has reaped some successes with its own productions such as Stranger Things, Money Heist or El juego del squid. In recent months it has timidly entered the field of sports, with titles such as Drive to Survive, a series focused on Formula 1 drivers and their team leaders, among other prominent personalities from the 'great circus'. But until now it had not explored the broadcasting of live sporting events.
The idea is not to buy the broadcasting rights to a major sporting event, as competitors like Disney have done with the Indian Premier League cricket, but to create their own competition. Specifically, a celebrity golf tournament to be held in Las Vegas. As The Wall Street Journal exclusively indicates, some of the tournament participants would be familiar faces from Netflix shows such as Drive to Survive itself and the Full Swing docuseries.
As the aforementioned headline indicates, acquiring the broadcasting rights for a tournament or one of the most important events in the world is expensive and complicated (Disney's adventure has ended very badly). In fact, Netflix already tried to take over the rights to Formula 1 held by ESPN, but failed.
After the success of Drive to Survive, which premiered its fifth season this year, other similar content has arrived on Netflix. The aforementioned Full Swing, an eight-episode miniseries about the world of golf; Break Point, about the world of tennis and whose second part will be released on June 21, or the recently arrived Tour de France, with eight episodes and focused on one of the most iconic events in the world of cycling.
At the moment, more details of this new project of the platform are unknown, and if this will be the previous step to a live sports broadcast. What is certain is that Netflix has plenty of experience in creating contests and reality shows. An example of this is cooking talent like Snack vs Chef, Is it a cake? or Sugar Rush; or in the field of fashion as Next in fashion.
