Netflix appears to have put in a winning bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the current World Cup broadcaster.
As reported on various outlets – we first saw the news on Deadline website – this move comes about as part of a general broadcasting battle between Netflix and Paramount.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) put itself out for offers a couple of months ago and quickly received a series of offers from Paramount. Then Netflix stepped up with a ‘$28 a share’ offer, mostly in Actual Money according to Deadline’s sources. WBD’s shares are currently sat at around $26, which is a year high (they had been their lowest at $7.50 earlier this year).
What this means for World Cup racing broadcasts is not entirely clear. For some strange reason, the news focus has been on WBD’s ownership of Harry Potter, DC Comics, Game of Thrones and (every parent’s favourite) KPop Demon Hunters Singalong.
Netflix does not have a history of acquiring companies in moves such as this one, and there’s not much precedent in terms of live sports coverage from Netflix, so it feels very much like the current WBD broadcast team would simply find themselves being watched via the Netflix app instead of WBD’s.
In terms of what it means for mountain bike race fans, basically it’ll potentially be a massive reduction in cost. Netflix UK’s monthly subscriptions start from £5.99 (Standard with Ads) as opposed to the rather hefty £30.99 demanded by WBD/TNT for this year’s racing.
WBD has stated that it hopes any deal to complete before the end of the year.
[ Thanks to Hannah Dobson for the headline! ]