A showdown between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and social media influencer-turned-fighter Jake Paul on Friday is Netflix’s latest one-two punch, as the media giant hopes to cash in on sports’ sprint to streaming.

The intergenerational showdown has all the makings of crossover success, with Tyson, 58, appealing to the old guard and Paul, 27, who rose to fame early on YouTubeattracting young social media addicts to screens.

Available to everyone those of Netflix With more than 280 million subscribers at no extra cost, this could be a welcome change for American boxing fans accustomed to shelling out extra to watch marquee matches on long-running channel HBO.

“The trend right now in all sports is moving some of their properties to streaming,” said Bob Dorfman, a veteran sports marketing analyst based in San Francisco.

“These are two huge personalities. This has the potential to become the biggest sporting event on streaming.”

US subscription television channel HBO announced in 2018 that it was removing live boxing from its programming, ending a 45-year relationship with the sport and leaving a broadcast void in its wake.

Netflix has already dabbled in sports content, with golf and tennis events and the hugely popular documentary series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive”, which is credited with boosting the popularity of the auto racing circuit in the United States .

The fight at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, its first live boxing event, plays into Netflix’s strategy of providing exclusive content that viewers can’t find elsewhere.

Although the fight is not traditionally advertised, it does have sponsors whose messages will be part of the live-streamed event.

Advertising is not a major contributor to the streamer’s current revenue, although its ad-supported level is growing rapidly, with 70 million subscribers reported this week, up from 40 million in May.

The mega-event is a sign of an enduring love affair between sports and streaming, said Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports, although he predicts that streaming and traditional broadcasting will coexist in a foreseeable future.

“This is a unique event…It’s more of a novelty in my opinion. It doesn’t change the industry,” said Pilson, president of Pilson Communications.

“The industry is always going to be driven by league deals (like) MLS, NFL and Major League Baseball.”

Amazon Prime took over Thursday Night Football in 2021 and MLS signed a 10-year mega-deal with Apple TV in 2022 worth $2.5 billion.

Major League Baseball also signed a deal with Apple for “Friday Night Baseball,” a weekly doubleheader, in 2022.

Leagues are turning to streaming both because it reaches global audiences, including younger viewers, who don’t watch traditional television.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that Apple The streaming platform allows MLS to better tap into the sport’s global fan base.

“We saw the difficulty in getting an audience and managing the economy well with local and regional television — we saw that in 2018,” Garber said this week at the Paley International Council summit.

“We wanted to go to market with a global package…We have a global subscription, every one of our 600 games is treated like ‘Monday Night Football.’

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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