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Netflix’s Live Sports Vulcan Chess

Rival executives have characterized the streamer’s recent live events as a sign of desperation—or simply P.R. stunts to jumpstart its ad revenue efforts. But this critique underestimates the Sarandos strategy and its ultimate ambition.

netflix slam
Netflix, after all, is still in the flirtation phase of its journey toward live sports, and the streamer is working to find product-market fit. Courtesy of Netflix
Julia Alexander
March 12, 2024

Last week’s exhibition match between tennis superstars Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal, streamed live on Netflix, went off without incident. By all accounts, it was a glitzy evening in Las Vegas, with Mandalay Bay’s arena festooned in Netflix branding, a La Roche-Posay sponsor integration, and celebs like Charlize Theron and Catherine Zeta-Jones sitting courtside. I didn’t attend, but I checked Twitter from time to time to see what was going on and was met with relative silence. When I texted a few sports media executives, they were mostly indifferent, too.