Streaming giant Netflix will expand its sports offering after announcing two new projects with Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox.
The first project is a documentary following the Red Sox over a full MLB season, with access to players, coaches, and executives throughout the 2024 season, with the docuseries set to debut in 2025.
The series will be executive produced and directed by One Potato Productions, with Boardwalk Pictures also serving as executive producers.
The second project, set to debut on Netflix later this year, is an untitled documentary covering the 2004 Red Sox season, where the team won their first World Series title in 86 years.
It will feature new and exclusive interviews with key players and figures from the team.
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said: “The partnership between MLB, Netflix, and the Red Sox will have a significant impact on growing the game of baseball. The reach of Netflix is profound and these docuseries are ambitious.”
Last year, Netflix renewed deals for three prominent sports docuseries - golf’s Full Swing, tennis’ Break Point, and a sports docuseries around the US Women’s Soccer Team’s recent failed World Cup title defense in Australia and New Zealand.
The company also announced a new documentary series tracking US stock car motor racing’s Nascar Cup Series playoffs and championship race which is set to premiere early this year.
More recently, wrestling's WWE announced that its flagship Monday Night Raw program is leaving linear TV for the first time as the company agreed to a deal with Netflix to broadcast the weekly live show in several major global territories.
Beginning in January 2025, Netflix will broadcast the weekly 3-hour live show both domestically in the US, as well as in Canada, the UK, and across Latin America. More regions will be added to the deal during its length, which is rumored to be as long as 10 years.
Netflix has reportedly paid around $5 billion for the rights to Raw, which at 31 years old is one of the longest-running weekly episodic sports TV shows in the world.
