Netflix Joint CEO: I haven't seen the profit model of live sports events yet.
On the morning of December 7, Beijing time, it was reported that Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of US video streaming giant Netflix, said on Tuesday that Netflix's management team had not yet seen a profitable business model in the field of webcasting of sports events.
Sarados is also chief content officer of Netflix. He said that the traditional business model of professional sports events in the United States is based on the business model of television broadcasting, while broadcasting providers invest heavily in buying the rights to live sports events.
Speaking at the UBS Global TMT Conference on Tuesday, Mr Sarados said: "Today, we have not seen a profit model for buying live rights to major sports events."
Live sports have become a focus of the Internet market in recent years, with online video giants Apple TV+ (AAPL) and Prime Video (AMZN) adding live sports services, each buying live rights to Thursday's games in the American Professional Football League and the American Football League. In addition, NBC Universal, one of the three major US television giants, broadcasts NFL games on television channels as well as on its online video platform Peacock.
In the past, Netflix was able to increase its online video membership, even without buying live rights to major sporting events, such as the Super Bowl, an American rugby final, Sarados said. He believes that Netflix will be able to gradually double the number of video members in the future, even without live sporting events. However, Sarados did not completely rule out the possibility of Netflix entering the live broadcast of sports events in the future.
At the conference, Sarados said that Netflix is not opposed to live sports events based on the Internet, the company just pays more attention to whether it can be profitable, and so far, Netflix has not figured out how to broadcast major sports games in a profitable way.
