CNBC Television Sep 17, 2026 30m 19m saved
With Bela Bajaria, Chief Content Officer at Netflix
Netflix has five NFL games this season and no fixed plan for how many it will have next season. Bela Bajaria said the sports budget is not a separate line; it competes for room inside one content budget that Netflix puts at $20 billion.
Rival streamers have generally committed to sports rights years ahead. Netflix's position is the opposite, and Bajaria kept using the same word for it: opportunistic. The company takes the thing that becomes available and can be turned into an occasion, whether that is a Christmas Day game, a boxing match, or a climber going up a Taipei skyscraper live.
"And maybe if I had $1 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 runs content for a service she said entertains about a billion people, and she was speaking to Alex Sherman in Melbourne before Netflix's first regular-season NFL game in Australia. She also answered directly on whether Netflix would carry another company's streaming service, and said it already does one version of that in France.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 30 minutes of audio, 11 minutes of reading.
Here are the 12 moments that matter.
Key Takeaways
The sports slate is "opportunistic", not a fixed multi-year plan, and it competes inside one budget
Netflix already carries a rival broadcaster's content in France through its TF1 partnership
Whether it does the same elsewhere comes down to the terms, Bajaria said, not to strategy
She rejected the idea that young viewers only want short video, naming Wednesday and Scooby-Doo
On the share price, her answer was no pivot — keep investing, stay disciplined
AI fear in Hollywood has receded as filmmakers came to treat it as a tool rather than a mandate
Netflix gives full theatrical releases to family titles and awards-qualifying runs to the rest
1. What Counts as an Event
Sherman opened by asking Bajaria to define the word Netflix uses constantly. Her answer was that an event can be a single game, a moment or a whole tournament, and that the test is whether it generates conversation rather than whether it is sport. She listed the first Christmas Day NFL game with Beyoncé at halftime, the World Baseball Classic in Japan, the Home Run Derby, Alex Honnold's live climb of Taipei 101, and the BTS concert in Seoul after the group finished military service. Her phrase for the common thread was that the thing about an event is "it's buzzy cultural zeitgeist, kind of that really sort of unmissable moment."
"That doesn't mean it's just sports." — Bela Bajaria
"There's something in that that just feels like there is very sort of appointment TV, but with also like great conversation around it." — Bela Bajaria
2. Five NFL Games
This season's slate is opening week, the Melbourne game, Thanksgiving Eve, two Christmas games and a to-be-announced Week 18 fixture, with NFL Honors the night before the Super Bowl. Bajaria said the Week 18 game is an event because Week 18 matters, and that the partnership runs through the 2029-30 season on a four-game minimum. Asked whether Netflix would decide year by year how many games to take, she pushed back on the premise of a plan.
"So we're like, we can make Christmas a holiday." — Bela Bajaria
"And so I think in that way, we are always open to being flexible, and we meet with everybody." — Bela Bajaria
Pressed on whether Netflix could eventually take Sunday Night Football, she declined to engage with the question and made a joke about how often it gets asked.
"And maybe if I had $1 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." — Bela Bajaria
3. A Profitable Path
Sherman put Ted Sarandos's 2022 comment to her, that he could not see a profitable path into big sports, against what Netflix has done since: WWE, five NFL games, the Women's World Cup. Bajaria did not claim the economics changed because of advertising alone. She said the advertising tier helps, and that the reason underneath it is simpler.
"People obviously, people love sports. I love sports." — Bela Bajaria
"And our strategy was like, let's be disciplined, let's be opportunistic." — Bela Bajaria
"But ultimately, we have about a billion people around the world that we entertain, and we know people love sports, and we know people love baseball in Japan and football slash soccer in Mexico, and I think that's just always going to continue to be a part of it." — Bela Bajaria
She also placed live inside a longer history at the company, starting with Chris Rock's stand-up special and the Tom Brady roast, before the Jake Paul fight with Mike Tyson, which she described as an entertainment event rather than a sports rights deal.
4. Acquisition and Retention
Sherman quoted the other co-chief executive, Greg Peters, saying live accounts for about 5% of the content budget and 1% of engagement, while producing six of the top 10 moments for customer additions. Bajaria agreed that some events exist to bring people in, and said the reason they stay is the rest of the catalog.
"So you may come for this one big event that you've heard of, or you're a big fan of that sport, and now you come." — Bela Bajaria
"We don't just put it on and just go, okay, well, this is a live event and people like this." — Bela Bajaria
All five NFL games go out worldwide, which she contrasted with the way international rights are usually broken up market by market. The local offices then do the work of explaining the event to an audience that may not follow the sport.
"Wherever, if you're a member in Sao Paulo or Germany or London, you're gonna click on Netflix, and there it is, super easy." — Bela Bajaria
5. The Men's World Cup
Asked directly whether Netflix is interested in the men's tournament, having bought the women's, Bajaria answered about the women's tournament and the relationship rather than the question. She gave the same answer on the NHL and Major League Baseball rights that come up in 2028: Netflix has relationships with every major league, sometimes through documentary series, and availability is not by itself a reason to bid.
"And we have the Women's World Cup, so I'm really excited about that." — Bela Bajaria
"And we have a you know great partnership and relationship with FIFA, so we're definitely going to always have those conversations." — Bela Bajaria
"That's just not the way we look at it." — Bela Bajaria, on buying rights because they are on the market
6. The Stock Is Down
Sherman noted that Netflix shares are down more than 15% this year after a long run as a high flyer, and asked what she attributes it to. Bajaria did not give a market explanation and did not accept the suggestion that the strategy needs changing.
"I think we have to continue to stay the course at our strategy and the investment and being disciplined." — Bela Bajaria
"No, I think we always continue to, and I think what's great about Netflix is like we're a company that evolves" — Bela Bajaria
7. The YouTube Question
Sherman described his own children refusing Netflix in favor of YouTube and asked whether Netflix needs user-generated content. Bajaria rejected the framing rather than the concern, and pointed to Mark Rober, who makes an original show for Netflix, as evidence the company already works with creators from elsewhere.
"But I think the goal is, I think to me still, I think it's too hand wavy or dismissive to say, oh, young people only watch short things or that. That's not true." — Bela Bajaria
"When we have a new season of Wednesday, or we have a new show that people love, or when Scooby Doo comes out, which is excellent, like it's going to be a gigantic, large audience, and people will watch it together." — Bela Bajaria
On micro-dramas and vertical short-form, she said Netflix already has vertical video on mobile and a wide range of formats, and returned to the same point.
"I still think you cannot underestimate making the next great show or movie, right?" — Bela Bajaria
8. Podcasts on Netflix
Netflix carries Bill Simmons after the game and has a deal with Jay Shetty that runs beyond the podcast into an unscripted show. Bajaria said the appeal is partly the conversation around a sporting event Netflix does not own, and partly a different time of day.
"I think the other thing is people definitely have different times of day, like right, seeing sort of viewing in different day parts because people want to watch podcasts in the morning." — Bela Bajaria
"I mean, people really do like video podcasts, right?" — Bela Bajaria
9. Ingesting a Rival
Sherman raised what he has called streaming wars 3.0: one large platform embedding another company's service, with a hypothetical Netflix-Peacock arrangement as the example everyone reaches for. Bajaria did not rule it out. She pointed instead to France, where Netflix already carries content from the broadcaster TF1 — an arrangement she described as one Netflix set up to test the idea — and said the groundwork already exists in most markets through pay-one film deals with Sony and NBCUniversal and local licensing with linear networks.
"I think it's the details of the deal. I mean, we did it with TF1," — Bela Bajaria, when Sherman asked whether the determining factor is the terms
"We also have so much local licensing that we do with you know local linear networks and have sort of the flow of that so there's already like a natural partnership in most of these countries, and so that's going to always be continuing the conversations." — Bela Bajaria
10. AI After the Strike
Asked whether the panic about AI during the writers' strike has subsided, Bajaria said it has, and attributed the change to information rather than to policy. Netflix will pay for the tools for filmmakers who want them and does not require anyone to use them.
"I think what you see and back then, for sure, was a lot of fear, and it was fear because people didn't understand what it was and what it meant." — Bela Bajaria
"And so it wasn't ever sort of companies wanted to mandate it. I just think there was a lot of fear and a lot of misinformation." — Bela Bajaria
11. Theatrical, Two Ways
On what the public misunderstands about Netflix and cinemas, Bajaria separated two things the company does. Most films get a theatrical release to qualify for awards; some get a full commercial run, and she named Narnia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as family titles in that second category. The rest of the argument was about where members want to watch.
"I think that our members love movies, and we invest a lot in movies." — Bela Bajaria
"We know people love to go theaters." — Bela Bajaria
12. Reed Hastings' Culture
Sherman's last question was whether Netflix's willingness to reverse itself, on advertising, on sports, on live, means the old discipline has faded since Reed Hastings stepped back. Bajaria said the opposite: the reversals are the culture working, and Hastings was the one pushing them while he was there.
"By the way, Reed is like such an incredible founder, and I think what he instilled really in the culture, which obviously is very well known, and people have read about it and talked about it, and it exists out there." — Bela Bajaria
"But he is the first one of like, let's ask questions." — Bela Bajaria
"We suck today compared to as good as we're going to be in the future, right?" — Bela Bajaria, repeating a line she attributed to Hastings
Bonus Insights
Bajaria said she watches Bill Simmons rather than listening in the background, and texts him during the show — mostly about the Packers, sometimes to ask why he is not promoting Netflix
Alex Honnold pitched the Taipei 101 climb himself. Bajaria used it as her example of why the slate cannot be planned years out: "Who knew? Alex Honnold walked in the door"
The Westminster Dog Show came up alongside the NFL as the kind of one-off a local office knows how to sell to its own audience
Hockey's Four Nations tournament was her example of a competition created rather than bought, and the model Netflix wants to copy with events of its own
Netflix holds pay-one film deals with both Sony and NBCUniversal, which she offered as evidence of how much the company funds other studios' movies
NBC Sports is producing the Melbourne game that Netflix is carrying globally, which Sherman raised as a sign of how entangled the two companies already are
Bajaria's bottom line is that Netflix is not building a sports business; it is buying occasions, one at a time, out of the same budget that funds everything else, and keeping the option to change its mind about any of it.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Netflix (Five NFL games this season, a partnership running through 2029-30 on a four-game minimum, and a content budget she put at $20 billion)
TF1 (The French broadcaster whose content Netflix already carries — the live precedent for the ingest model Sherman asked about)
NBCUniversal and Sony (Pay-one film deals with both; NBC Sports is producing the Melbourne game)
Peacock (The hypothetical partner Sherman named for a Netflix ingest deal; Bajaria neither confirmed nor ruled it out)
FIFA (Netflix holds Women's World Cup rights; she declined to answer directly on the men's tournament)
WWE (The deal that followed Ted Sarandos saying he saw no profitable path into big sports)
YouTube (The competitor Sherman said his children choose over Netflix; Bajaria rejected the short-form framing)
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