My name is Christopher Peter and I am the political economist, investor, and podcaster behind the original content you experience on The Christopher Peter Review.
Not that long ago, I was watching one of the leading business networks and a contributor asked a very poignant question. How long can networks continue to pay elevated deals to obtain the broadcast rights for sports? A reasonable question.
There might come a point where networks draw the line and hold their ground against organizations demanding higher fees for access to content. Given the market environment, one would expect some change in behaviors of the networks.
That point may not come, as streaming services now become an even bigger player in the market for live sports. NBC and ESPN have used their streaming services as an outlet to connect streamers with live sports content. But pure streamers have dabbled. Amazon went all in by acquiring rights for Thursday Night Football.
Now, Netflix made their big splash acquiring the North American broadcast rights as well as other global rights for areas not currently under contract for the WWE Raw brand, the top sports entertainment brand in the industry. A brand that will provide fifty two weeks of live original content on the top streaming service in the world.
Netflix continues to grow with an additional 13 million subscribers added in 2023, bringing their total a market leading 260+ million subscribers. Technically, the collective number of Disney subscribers across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ services would come in second at 223 million with Amazon's Prime in third with 200 million.
Live sports will remain a valued asset as people no longer really watch shows when networks broadcast them. Many prefer to binge them later on. But sports are the exception. As well as sports entertainment. And we know ads are not impacting streamer behaviors with recent data.
Please click on the above image to listen to my discussion of the Netflix deal.