Netflix wins US rights to broadcast Women’s World Cups in 2027 and 2031
As they continue to increase the amount of live sports coverage on their streaming platform, Netflix has successfully secured the rights to show live coverage of the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. They will only stream the tournament in the United States.
The deal was announced by FIFA, the football governing body. While Netflix has recently acquired the rights to many live entertainment events, including the Jake Paul v Mike Tyson fight and Christmas Day NFL games, this marks the first time they have secured the rights to stream an entire tournament.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino spoke highly about the deal, praising the streaming platform’s commitment to women’s football. “As a marquee brand on FIFA’s new long-term partner,” he said, “Netflix has shown a very strong level of commitment to growing women’s football.”
It’s clear that despite some complaints about the quality and handling of Netflix’s recent handling of the Jake Paul v Mike Tyson fight, the streaming platform has no intention of slowing down when it comes to streaming live content. They state that 60 million households worldwide watched the fight.
“60 million households around the world tuned in live to watch Paul vs Tyson!” Said the streaming platform in a statement they released after the fight, celebrating the success but also acknowledging the complaints made by viewers, “The boxing mega-event dominated social media, shattered records, and even had our buffering systems on the ropes.”
The big numbers were a positive sign for Netflix; however, the actual event was disappointing, as Tyson wasn’t on good form and the fight was relatively dull. Tyson issued a statement following the bout. “This is one of those situations when you lost but still won,” he said, “I’m grateful for last night. No regrets to get in the ring one last time. I almost died in June. Had 8 blood transfusions.”
The Women’s World Cup is likely going to be much more exciting. Throughout the UK, the Women’s World Cup is steadily becoming a must-watch event, as the sport has been growing at an exponential rate in recent years. These events have to be shown on free-to-air broadcasters when shown in the UK. In 2023, viewing figures peaked at 12 million as people nationwide tuned in to watch the final.
There is growing tension between FIFA and broadcasters, as Infantino threatened a complete TV blackout for a few countries because of poor broadcasters’ offers. The UK was among these countries.