When Netflix announced last month that it had acquired the rights to two NFL football games to stream on Christmas Day , TV news agents were buzzing. If the streaming behemoth is getting into sports — after saying for so long that it wouldn’t — could live news shows be far behind as the Los Gatos, Calif., streaming giant diversifies its programming roster? Think of the ease of a button on the Netflix home screen that could take users to a breaking story, such as last week’s guilty verdict in former President Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
Or consider how Netflix, which has 270 million users worldwide, could send out an alert to get viewers to watch coverage of the State of the Union address or a presidential debate. Nielsen data for April shows that Netflix is the second most-watched source for television viewing, accounting for 7.6% of all TV consumption behind YouTube’s 9.
6%. Live news would give users another reason to log in at a time when they are looking to consolidate the number of streaming services they pay for each month. Also, it would expand on what Netflix is doing with live broadcasts in other genres, such as the company’s star-studded “The Roast of Tom Brady” and the Netflix Slam tennis tournament.
Last year, Netflix added a subscriber tier where users who sit through sponsor messages pay a lower monthly fee. Live content such as the NFL and the WWE’s weekly “Raw” show (coming to Netflix next year) will have commercials, bringing .
