Earlier this week, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said he has yet to see a path to profitability in live sports on the streaming service.
Speaking at the UBS Global TMT conference, Sarandos highlighted that the economics of professional sports were built around the economics of television — and buying rights is expensive.
Sarandos said, “We’ve not seen a profit path to renting big sports today.”
Recently, rival streaming services Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video have added live professional sports competitions, acquiring rights to major league soccer and the NFL’s Thursday night games, respectively.
In addition, NBCUniversal simultaneously streams via Peacock the Sunday Night Football games it broadcasts on television.
Sarandos said Netflix has been able to add subscribers without the lure of big sporting events, such as the Super Bowl. He added that he is “confident” the service can double in size without streaming live sports, although he did not rule it out completely.
“We’re not anti-sports; we’re just pro-profit. We have yet to figure out how to do it,” Sarandos said.
