Netflix acquires Women’s World Cup in its biggest deal yet

Less than a week before it makes its NFL debut, Netflix has reached a far more consequential deal — acquiring the next two editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

FIFA announced Friday that Netflix has acquired English and Spanish-language rights to the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031, by a wide margin the most consequential sports rights deal struck by the streamer. While the NFL is the most popular of sports properties in the United States, its deal with Netflix is for one day a year — Christmas.

Netflix had not been previously mentioned as a bidder, but John Ourand of Puck reported last week that FIFA had told bidders than an unidentified “non-traditional” company had submitted the largest bid. At the time, speculation centered on DAZN, which earlier this year acquired the FIFA Club World Cup.

Ourand also reported that FIFA was only willing to sell rights to said company “if, and only if” it sublicensed some matches to a traditional media company. There was no mention of a sublicensing agreement in the Netflix deal announcement Friday.

For Netflix, which revolutionized the video rental industry by sending DVDs through the mail, and then inaugurated the era of streaming, the FIFA deal is its first full entry into the sports rights marketplace. Its deal with the NFL has already generated outsized attention and it is for at most six Christmas Day games over three years.

Technically, the FIFA deal is still in keeping with the Netflix strategy of picking its spots and acquiring big one-off events. (It is also in keeping with the company’s historical aversion to advertising, as World Cup matches air commercial free.) However, a month-long competition every four years is still a far greater commitment than any the company has previously made, and makes it a clear contender for rights to the 2030 men’s World Cup and even the Olympic Games.

Rights to the Women’s World Cup were previously bundled with those of the men’s tournament. Both tournaments were acquired by Fox Sports and Telemundo in a deal that went into effect in 2015 and ends with the 2026 men’s tournament. Previously, the tournaments aired on ESPN and Univision.