Netflix, Roku Accelerate Streaming Momentum in Sports Rights Deals

Sports broadcasting’s migration from cable and into the crowded world of streaming continues, as Netflix and Roku this week land the latest sports rights deals.

In a significant step further into the live TV business, Netflix closed a $150 million deal with the NFL for the exclusive worldwide rights to the two games airing on Christmas Day this season. That may seem like a high price tag for only a handful of games, and it is on the higher end of recent single-event deals made between the NFL and streaming platforms. Just last month, Amazon paid a record-setting $120 million to air a single playoff game in the upcoming 2024-25 season.

But the reality is Christmas Day football games tend to be some of the NFL’s most watched in the entire season — with all three of the games that aired last Christmas raking in almost 30 million viewers each.

Additionally, Netflix’s three-year deal also includes at least one still to be determined holiday game for 2025 and 2026. While the NFL’s biggest broadcast deals are still reserved for traditional networks, its short-term agreements with streaming platforms have so far proved mutually beneficial for both parties, despite the backlash to putting select games behind a paywall.

For Netflix, this NFL deal is just part of its larger mission to diversify its offerings and grow beyond being just a streaming platform. The company kicked off 2024 with a $5 billion deal with WWE for the rights to “Monday Night Raw,” which will take one of TV’s longest-running episodic programs off the air in 2025.

WWE’s flagship show was an impressively big fish for Netflix to snag as its first live sports deal, and now it has some of the most watched games of the most watched sport in the U.S. in its library as well. Between these sports deals and the equally ambitious push into video gaming, winning the streaming wars was clearly just the beginning for Netflix.

Roku, meanwhile, announced a multiyear rights deal with the MLB to exclusively air this season’s “Sunday Leadoff” games on the ad-supported Roku Channel, snagging the rights from Peacock after that streamer’s two-year deal expired. While the terms are undisclosed, Peacock previously acquired the rights to the Sunday morning games in a $60 million deal.

We can only speculate what Roku offered, but we do know the company — with its 81.6 million streaming households — has a much bigger reach than Peacock’s growing but comparatively modest 34 million subscriber base.

While this loss comes at a turbulent time for Peacock, better fortunes may be on the horizon as it gears up to be the streaming home of the 2024 Summer Olympics. The platform also retains the streaming rights to the coveted NFL “Sunday Night Football” games as part of a larger $22 billion deal between the league and NBC.

The Roku deal is also reflective of the MLB’s concerted efforts to navigate the changing broadcasting landscape. The partnership was announced amid the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group’s dispute with Comcast, which has left Xfinity customers unable to access regional sports networks for weeks.

The MLB is only a few seasons into its seven-year signing with Apple TV+, and the Roku deal also includes the launch of the MLB Zone channel for game highlights and recaps, both of which show MLB’s eagerness to play ball with streaming.

Of course, these latest deals are part of the ongoing decentralization of live sports. If you want to catch “Sunday Night Baseball” games, for instance, you’ll need to switch from Roku to ESPN on cable. Streaming bundles and sports-centric streaming platforms may offer fans some financial relief, but followers will still have to keep track of where their favorite sports are airing, right down to the individual game.