Netflix is breaking out the tennis rackets for its next live sports event.
The Netflix Slam, streaming on March 3, 2024 at 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET., will see tennis titans Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz face off in the one-night exhibition match. Additional players and match-ups have yet to be announced.
The match will stream as a dual broadcast for English and Spanish-speaking markets, according to Netflix.
Over the last few years, there’s been an uptick in a demand for live sports streaming, but sports media rights are expensive. With a deluge of services available, leagues can shop the highest bidder. This is why we’ve seen larger companies like Amazon and Google (through YouTube TV) buying up sports content rights.
The Netflix Slam follows up the streaming giant’s first in-house sporting event, The Netflix Cup, which premiered in November. Both are illustrative of the streaming giant’s desire to get into live sports, but not pay the huge fees to secure the media rights to established leagues.
By creating its own live sports event, Netflix has gotten around the need to purchase sports media rights.
“I’m thrilled that with The Netflix Slam, we can give our global audience an opportunity to watch two tennis greats battle each other in a one-of-a-kind live event,” Gabe Spitzer, Netflix’s vice president of non-fiction sports.