By Emily Dattilo
Netflix is bringing boxing gloves to the streaming fight -- literally.
For the first time, the entertainment giant is joining forces with production company Most Valuable Promotions to livestream a boxing match between Jake Paul, an internet influencer turned fighter, and 58-year-old boxing Hall of Famer Mike Tyson.
The main card takes place at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, today at 8 p.m. Eastern time. The matchup is free to watch if you already have a paid Netflix subscription, forgoing the pay-per-view model traditionally used by cable companies for these kinds of matches.
This isn't Netflix's first foray into live events, but it is one of the highest-profile live sports events on the streaming service. The media company saw an increase in viewership when it livestreamed The Roast of Tom Brady, a comedy special. Now Netflix is pushing further into live sports. It signed multiyear deals with the National Football League to stream some Christmas Day matches and WWE to broadcast the wrestling company's weekly Raw show.
"Netflix tends to really benefit from big name promos like this and the stock has been rallying for months," Mizuho Securities analyst Daniel O'Regan wrote on Friday. Shares have soared 68% this year, far outpacing streaming peers including Walt Disney, which has gained 25%, and Comcast, which has fallen about 3%.
Streaming sports opens up another avenue of subscriber growth for Netflix, while also undercutting the traditional cable model. In the past, high-profile boxing matches required viewers to have a cable subscription and pay an additional price to watch the event.
Netflix's competitors have pushed into live sports, too, with Amazon.com, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Disney, and others vying for pieces of the sports streaming pie.
Comcast streaming service Peacock, which also streams Sunday night NFL games and Premier League soccer, saw success with the summer 2024 Paris Olympics. The platform delivered content on a multitude of sports -- from the mainstays like gymnastics and swimming, to newer entrants, like surfing and breaking. Paris Olympics streaming edged past 17 billion minutes on Peacock and other NBCUniversal digital platforms, Comcast said. That was nearly four times the amount of digital watching time for the Tokyo Olympics.
A boxing match isn't the Olympics, but it could still be a knockout for Netflix.
Write to Emily Dattilo at emily.dattilo@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 15, 2024 12:18 ET (17:18 GMT)
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