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The company recently bid for the streaming
rights for the ATP tennis tour for some European countries,
including France and the U.K., but dropped out, the report said.
Netflix declined to comment, when contacted by Reuters.
The company also discussed bidding for other events, including
U.K. rights to the Women's Tennis Association and cycling
competitions, and was in talks late last year to acquire the
World Surf League, the WSJ said.
Netflix executives have considered buying lower-profile leagues
to avoid the mounting costs of bidding for sports rights,
according to the report, while some of them believe they could
boost lesser-known sports into franchises given the size of the
platform.
The move comes as Netflix has been struggling to add new
subscribers as competition from rivals including Walt Disney Co,
Apple and Amazon increases. This month, Netflix launched an
ad-backed tier in an attempt to boost revenue and subscriber
growth.
Streaming platforms are also looking at live sports to gain
market share in an already saturated market.
Disney and Liberty Media-owned Formula One extended their
broadcast partnership last month, while Major League Soccer and
Apple TV announced a partnership to stream every game on the app
for the next decade.
(Reporting by Shreyaa Narayanan and Vansh Agarwal in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
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