SBJ Media: Netflix data gives glimpse of users sports viewing habits

“The Roast of Tom Brady” was a big winner among sports programming on Netflix during the first half of the year, while “Drive to Survive” held steady and “Full Swing” -- reflecting broader golf viewership -- fell off, notes SBJ’s Austin Karp, who took a deep dive into the data.

In terms of global views, Brady’s special not only outperformed all sports titles on Netflix from January through June, but it was also No. 26 among all Netflix programs (any genre, any language) in terms of views -- and the show wasn’t even offered globally.  Only two other Netflix offerings without global distribution ranked higher -- “Peppa Pig” Season 6 and “Young Sheldon” Season 1 -- and both of those were full seasons with multiple episodes.

However, Brady did not draw the broader appeal that David Beckham’s three-part doc saw in the second half of 2023 (that series had global distribution). Both had around two months of run in their data sets, with Brady’s special seeing 22.4 million views vs. 43.9 million for Beckham’s doc from July-December 2023 (Beckham drew another 4.1 million from January-June 2024). In terms of hours watched, Brady drew 68.7 million hours vs Beckham’s 208.5 million).

But for the first half of 2024, Brady’s special was on par with broader entertainment offerings like “CoComelon” and “Love is Blind.”

Fast & furious

Season 6 of “Drive to Survive” debuted in late February and drew 11.6 million views (the same amount that the sixth and final season of “The Crown” drew in the same six-month window). Views were not available for the same time frame last year, but in terms of hours watched, Season 6 was down somewhat from Season 5 of the F1 show (86.9 million vs. 90.2 million).

Meanwhile, “NASCAR: Full Speed,” which debuted in late January, saw 13.5 million hours watched and 3.4 million views (the show also had global distribution). That was just above what Season 1 of “Drive to Survive” (which debuted in 2019) got in this same time frame to start 2024 (12.4 million hours watched with 2.1 million views).

While NASCAR has agreed to another season, exact plans remain unclear with the start of the playoffs just over a month away and as teams try to get a new charter agreement first, sources told SBJ's Adam Stern .

Country clubbing

“Full Swing,” which goes deep on the PGA Tour, debuted Season 2 in March, and the show dropped sharply from Season 1 numbers from the same time in 2023. Season 2 racked up 4.8 million views and 28.5 million hours watched from January-June, which is down from 53.1 million hours watched for Season 1 during the same six-month period in 2023.

However, the show has already received a green light for Season 3 , which differs from Netflix’s approach with another golf event -- The Netflix Cup -- which will not be brought back for the back half of 2024 after only 700,000 views (1.7 million hours watched) over the final six months of 2023.

Lower viewership data was also evident for Season 2 of “Break Point,” and that ultimately led to Netflix cancelling the show . Over the first half of 2024, “Break Point,” which follows top players on the ATP and WTA tours, saw just 13 million hours watched (2.7 million views). Season 1, which debuted in January 2023, had 30.5 million hours watched during its first six months of data.

The Netflix Slam tennis event in early March -- Carlos Alcaraz vs. Rafael Nadal -- also only ended with 2.6 million hours watched (1 million views) to start 2024.

What else are people watching?

Among the “Untold” series of sports documentaries on Netflix (akin to “30 for 30” films), the draw of the Aaron Hernandez story continued to be evident. The four-part “Swamp Kings,” which looks at the Florida Gators football team during Hernandez’s time there with Urban Meyer and others, was the only film in the “Untold” series to make any dent in the data (despite actually debuting in August 2023). 

Another series that performed well for Netflix was Season 1 of “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” which had 6 million views and 40 million hours watched. There also was only less than two weeks of data for that show, which debuted June 20. In terms of views though, the Cowboys’ cheerleader show was at the same level as “Breaking Bad” Season 5 on Netflix.

Three weeks into the NFL season -- and Tom Brady’s broadcasting career -- veteran journalist Tom Rinaldi described the former QB as an “excellent teammate.”

“He has been curious, humble and eager -- and incredibly dedicated to this preparation and wanting to do this and do it well,” said Rinaldi. “It’s been energizing for everyone on the crew to be around him, and I love being his teammate, already learning so much about the game from his point of view. Just as importantly, I’m learning what it is to be a teammate of his and why teammates are drawn to him the way they are.”

For Rinaldi, a 16-time Sports Emmy winner, his latest podcast venture premiered last week , with the next episode dropping on Thursday. For the seasoned broadcaster, podcasting gives a much deeper opportunity to explore a longer-form story. “It’s a chance to dive much more deeply into a story, and its details, than you would typically be allowed to do in a television feature,” Rinaldi explained. “[Like] for 'Big Noon Kickoff,' where time is much tighter, and the real estate is much more limited.”

What’s next

Rinaldi doesn’t quite know where to look in the college football space, citing NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment and NCAA lawsuits. “It is among the most turbulent times, maybe the most turbulent time, in the college sports space, certainly in my career,” he said. “Yet, it’s amazing. The beauty of the sport is that at its simplest, best constant, it only gets better. And that’s the games themselves.”

Rinaldi spent nearly 20 years at ESPN, and his departure in 2020 for Fox marked a stunning transition in the sports media landscape. Rinaldi expressed a continuing love for ESPN, saying he is “deeply indebted” to the opportunities the company provided.

“The move to Fox has been an absolute home run,” said Rinaldi. “I get to do the things I never got the chance to do in 20 years at ESPN,” citing sideline reporting at the Super Bowl, men’s and women’s World Cups, the 2024 Euros and a documentary on John Madden (which Madden was able to view before his passing).

• Tom Rinaldi "promised me" the team at Fox would give my Northwestern Wildcats a little more love on the game programming, asking me to just be patient. I may need to be a lot more patient following Saturday's performance. Do you know how hard it is to score five points in a football game?

• Fox easily led all of TV on Friday night (sports or otherwise) with 4.2 million viewers for Illinois' win over Nebraska in OT, notes SBJ's Austin Karp. That's Fox's best Friday night figure since Game 1 of the World Series last October. Illinois-Nebraska was better than any audience for WWE's "SmackDown" during its five-year run on Fox.

• The NASCAR Xfinity Series debuted on the CW on Friday night, drawing 906,000 viewers (that's the best figure for the Xfinity Series since July). But the San Jose State-Washington State football game airing after that Bristol race -- even with a double-OT game -- couldn't maintain the NASCAR audience, averaging 542,000 viewers in the 10pm ET window (albeit 10% higher than the CW's college football audience in 2023). I wrote about the CW's evolving strategy for sports in this week's magazine.

• A’ja Wilson is the unanimous WNBA MVP for only the second time ever (first was Cynthia Cooper, 1997). On Thursday, I told WNBA legend and current Pelicans exec Swin Cash that Wilson would be a unanimous selection (she said no). “I bet you there’s going to be someone that votes for Napheesa [Collier]. And someone from Indiana is going to slip in a vote,” Cash said. Sorry Swin, but I told you so.

• ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 all had women’s sports during the bulk of the NFL windows early Sunday afternoon. ESPN’s Arielle Chambers made her sideline reporting debut during the Liberty game. As someone who has long enjoyed reporting by folks like Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter and Monica McNutt, Chambers’ name will soon be part of that list.

• My boss Josh Barnett told me he appreciated this commentary from Tom Brady during Fox's Ravens-Cowboys telecast, when Dallas was down 28-6: “It’s such a cliché in NFL football to say we want to start fast. Well, of course, we know that. There is a reason why. You get to play on your terms. Your whole playbook is useful. At this point in the game, Dallas doesn’t have its whole playbook. They have downhill runs and drop-back passes, which plays to the strength of this defense."

• It's the end of an era after nearly 20 years of NBC Sports Chicago coverage in my hometown. The RSN is shuttering at the end of the month, but it's going out with 30 hours of programming spotlighting the White Sox, Blackhawks, Cubs and documentary programming. On Oct. 1, welcome Chicago Sports Network.