Saturday's boxing match between Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford, streaming live on Netflix, is more than just a fight.
Why it matters: It represents a significant shift for a combat sports industry whose bread and butter has been pay-per-view (PPV) for over half a century.
State of play: Netflix is quickly becoming boxing's new arena. The streaming service dipped its toe in the arena last November's Jake Paul–Mike Tyson fight that drew 60 million viewers worldwide and delivered a major subscriber bump.
- Paul-Tyson was considered more an entertainment spectacle than a "real" boxing match, while Saturday's Álvarez–Crawford features two of the best boxers in the world.
Yes, but: Both follow the same playbook — streaming on a streaming platform whose audience dwarfs that of successful PPV events that generate buys in the low millions.
How it works: PPV requires viewers to pay anywhere from $50 to $90 to watch a single event.
- A well-marketed boxing fight could produce hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, while a bust could lose money.
What they're saying: Media analyst Dan Rayburn tells Axios the appeal of streaming lies in its "guaranteed revenue stream" over PPV's hit-or-miss possibility.
- "Sports content owners are cutting huge deals over a long period of time, while streaming services are getting content that will drive subscriptions and keep subscribers on the service."
By the numbers: Netflix has not disclosed how much it paid to be the exclusive streaming partner for the Álvarez-Crawford fight, but other recent deals have been substantial.
- Álvarez's deal with streaming service DAZN, which ran from 2018 to 2023 and featured 11 fights, was worth a minimum of $365 million.
The latest: In August, the UFC, mixed-martial arts' top promotion, signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with Paramount (parent company of CBS) for its biggest fights to stream on Paramount+ beginning in 2026.
- "The exposure provided by the Paramount and CBS networks under this new structure is a huge win for our athletes and anyone who watches and loves this sport," UFC CEO and president Dana White said in a statement.
The big picture: The recent trend in combat sports is part of an overall new era for sports streaming, including recent deals for the NFL and FIFA.
- "People are going to see just how fragmented this has all become," Rayburn says. "The NFL is the best example of that with games streaming on several different platforms this year."
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