Folding the World Cup — long the final bastion of free-to-view soccer — into a subscription service could limit viewership

Confirmed by the sports federation on Dec. 20, the streamer giant will be hedging its next live sports bet on the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments, with Netflix obtaining U.S. rights to air the competition in its first-ever full acquisition of the competition and the World Cup's first appearance on streaming.

FIFA has announced that the next two editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2027 and 2031 will be exclusively broadcast on Netflix within the United States.

Netflix agreed to a broadcast rights deal with FIFA for the Women's World Cup in 2027 and 2031, which will bring the soccer tournament to a streaming service for the first time, the parties announced Friday.

Netflix's deal to acquire the U.S. media rights to the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup is a groundbreaking deal for the sport of soccer in the United States. For women's soccer, it secures top billing on a streaming service with 66 million subscribers in the United States.

Netflix is doubling down on live sport by inking a landmark deal to stream the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The streaming service has scored U.S. rights to the 2027 and 2031 installments of the soccer tournament. It is the first time Netflix has bought up a sports competition.

Why, then, all the excitement about Netflix's coming for live sports? First, there was Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul, a fight more memorable for Tyson's bare-butt interview and incessant buffering issues than the result itself.

It's the first time FIFA have agreed to license their landmark tournament to a non-traditional distribution partner

ZURICH — FIFA has signed Netflix to a United States broadcast deal for the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. The deal announced Friday is the most significant FIFA has signed with a streaming service for a major tournament. The value was not given. World Cups are typically broadcast on free-to-air public networks to reach the biggest audiences.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup will be the first competition to be acquired in full by Netflix. According to FIFA, it “further reinforces the tournament’s status as the single biggest women’s sporting event on the planet and provides an outstanding platform to further promote the game.”