Netflix's Bajaria Sets Out 'Event' Test for Live Sports Bids

Netflix will air five NFL games in the 2026-27 season, but Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria has ruled out chasing a full package like NBC's "Sunday Night Football" — and she has a $20 billion reason why.

"If I had a dollar for every time I'm asked that, that money would just pay for 'Sunday Night Football,' and I wouldn't even have to take it out of the $20 billion content budget," Bajaria joked in an exclusive interview with CNBC Sport, conducted last week from Melbourne, Australia.

Bajaria was on site for the first-ever regular-season NFL game played in Australia, a game whose global rights Netflix owned. The San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 27-7.

Defining the 'event'

Netflix's live sports strategy rests on finding games and tournaments it can turn into events. That makes the definition of "event" central to the company's approach.

"The thing about an event is it's buzzy, cultural, zeitgeist — that really sort of unmissable moment," Bajaria said. "There's something in that that just feels like it's very appointment TV, but also with great conversation around it."

The template is flexible. Bajaria pointed to Netflix's first NFL game, played on Christmas Day with Beyoncé performing at halftime. "So we're like, Christmas is a holiday, Beyoncé is gonna do the halftime, and we can sort of turn that into an event," she said. "And it can be World Baseball Classic in Japan. It can be Home Run Derby, but it also can be Alex Honnold Taipei 101, when he climbed a building. It can be when we did the BTS concert in Seoul."

Her framing echoes comments from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos earlier this year and suggests a large package of NFL games does not fit Netflix's strategy. The NFL can potentially renegotiate its media rights for games beginning after the 2029-30 season, when the league holds an opt-out clause on its current deals. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC last week the league would consider reworking its established packages.

International games appeal

One gap in the market could suit Netflix. The NFL does not currently sell a package of international games, but such a package might appeal to Netflix if it existed, Bajaria said. The league is playing nine international games this year and has 10 scheduled for next season.

"We obviously have this large global audience and a very engaged global audience," Bajaria said. "I think people will probably just go to that as kind of like a natural, 'Would we do international?' We have lots of U.S. members who obviously love NFL and football, and so I think we're always going to continue to have conversations."

Netflix's 2026-27 NFL slate includes the Australia game, the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game, two Christmas Day games and a Week 18 game guaranteed to carry significance — either deciding a playoff spot or determining seeding.

World Cup on the table

Bajaria confirmed Netflix's potential interest in bidding on the FIFA Men's World Cup in 2030 and 2034. The streamer already holds U.S. and Canadian rights to the Women's World Cup for 2027 and 2031. CNBC first reported Netflix's interest earlier this year.

"Obviously it's a beloved sport around the world, and we have the Women's World Cup, so I'm really excited about that," Bajaria said. "We have a great partnership and relationship with FIFA, so we're definitely going to always have those conversations."

Ingesting other streamers

While Netflix expands in sports, legacy media companies are reworking their own streaming strategies. YouTube announced in July it would ingest content from NBCUniversal's Peacock into its Premium subscription platform — a new model for the industry.

Bajaria suggested Netflix could be open to a similar arrangement. She called an existing partnership with France's TF1 Group a "test" for embedding live content from other media companies into its service.

"The business is changing," Bajaria said. "We can partner with TF1 locally, and that was sort of a conversation to like, oh, let's try to test it."

She singled out NBCUniversal as a company that already partners with Netflix in multiple ways, which can help both sides get comfortable with ingestion-style deals. Netflix has an exclusive licensing deal with Universal on its feature films, and NBC Sports produces live sports for Netflix, including last week's Australia game.

"What I love is we can continue to grow and evolve the business," Bajaria said. "There's already a natural partnership in most of these countries, and so that's going to always be continuing the conversations."

No YouTube pivot

Bajaria dismissed the idea that Netflix would rewrite its business strategy to compete with YouTube and short-form video. Nielsen data shows YouTube's streaming market share grows every month; in July the platform accounted for 14.2% of all streaming viewership, with Netflix second at 7.8%.

TV series and movies remain the platform's foundation, Bajaria said. "It's too hand-wavy or dismissive to say, 'Oh, young people only watch short things,'" she said. "When we make things for young people that they feel are really authentic and great, they will come. And that's the business. We're still in that. We support creators and filmmakers and visions. We invest in film and TV. Really great stories connect with people all day long."

With the NFL's opt-out window after the 2029-30 season and FIFA's 2030 and 2034 rights on the horizon, Netflix has positioned itself to bid selectively — on events it can own as cultural moments, not packages it would need to buy wholesale.