In the past, we’ve covered Netflix’s emerging interest in football coverage. After producing documentaries like Beckham and Together: Treble Winners, Netflix started eyeing a deal to broadcast UEFA’s Champions League from 2027 to 2031. They previously missed out, but now reports suggest the streaming giant might get a shot at the Premier League instead.
Football & Sports Streaming
It’s an understatement to say that streaming services have changed the way we watch a lot of TV. Their original appeal was the ability to watch things on demand, with no need to wait for programming schedules. The model was ahead of its time, using a choose-your-own-entertainment approach that was similar to websites like YouTube or sites that offer playable games, like a UK casino online. On platforms like these, there are often hundreds of different games and formats available. Instead of choosing your favourite slots, Netflix allowed users to watch old movies and TV shows whenever and wherever they wanted. Then they dipped into producing their own, offering exclusives that couldn’t be watched anywhere else.
Around the same time, live streaming became viable for a lot of online services. This is where sports streaming and Netflix’s eventual interest in it became an inevitability. Traditional over-the-air broadcasters switched to faster, better online streaming to spread their sports coverage even further than ever before. Today, most broadcasters use a hybrid system with over-the-air distribution to TV sets, but also over-the-top streams to mobile and other internet-enabled apps. As time goes on, more people will watch on the internet than through standard broadcast television.
That’s where streamers like Netflix come in. They already have the infrastructure and, in a competitive streaming market, live sports can provide services with a repeatable, potentially exclusive content model with a built-in, global, passionate fanbase. This is why we saw giants like Amazon take an interest in the NFL, Netflix take an interest in WWE and the UEFA Champions League.
Netflix’s Premier League Streaming Plans
Netflix didn’t get its UEFA coverage for several reasons. Their plans relied on UEFA splitting the Super Cup away from their usual coverage packages, something they decided against in the end. They also tried to secure regional coverage in places like Germany, but they were outbid by rival streaming service Paramount+.
A lack of proper European football is a big blind spot in Netflix’s current sports coverage, and it’s clearly something they’re trying to patch up. As mentioned, they’ve already explored football content by producing several successful docuseries about the sport. Beckham speaks for itself, but they also made Sunderland ‘Til I Die. Unlike Beckham and other series celebrating the greats, it follows a humble, downtrodden English club struggling through the EFL.
From the latest reports, Netflix is eyeing a deal for the Premier League next. Specifically, insiders are saying that they’ll dip into Christmas fixtures first, something we’ve seen them do with the NFL’s Christmas Day Games. By grabbing a seasonal event match, they can claim high-ticket coverage without spending for a full season, while also testing the waters to see if there’s an audience receptive to live, full-season football coverage.
British broadcast giants have retained coverage rights for the time being, but it’ll be up for renegotiation in 2028. When that time comes, Netflix is expected to make a big bid for some kind of Premier League coverage, and they definitely won’t come alone. They have no shortage of competitors, like Paramount and Amazon, who may try to muscle in on the action. International rights are up even sooner, in 2026-27, and so we will probably see streaming services make bids on those when the time comes.
