Netflix is making a major push into sports coverage when it officially signed former ESPN anchor Elle Duncan to be the primary lead in its coverage. In a new podcast interview, a Netflix executive explained what made Duncan such an attractive hire.
In “The Varsity” podcast released Sunday, Netflix’s vice president of sports Gabe Spitzer told host John Ourand about Duncan’s abilities and how she can help the company grow in a competitive field.
“Elle, first of all, is amazing,” Spitzer said. “Obviously, she has a multiyear history at ESPN. We saw what she did at ESPN, and it felt very Netflix to us in some form. She loves sports, but she had an entertainment and pop culture personality that we thought really could appeal to our members. As we do more sports content or more unscripted content or more entertainment content, she felt like she could fit in in many different places.”
Netflix has added NFL and MLB games to its coverage schedules, most notably the Christmas Day NFL games. The streaming service also secured WWE and boxing matches to its sports programming. For many of its broadcasts, especially the NFL, Netflix has had to negotiate with other networks like Fox and CBS to hire their play-by-play and color commentators.
Although Netflix hired Duncan from a major network, Spitzer said Netflix will not always pursue potential hosts the same way it went after Duncan.
“I think as we’ve evolved, we don’t necessarily want to always be talking to other networks about, ‘Can we use your talent?’” Spitzer said. “With Elle, it felt like the one where we said, ‘We could bring her into the fold.”