Netflix believes it has wrestled down its buffering issues—just in time for not only Christmas Day NFL games but the Jan. 6 start of its live coverage of World Wrestling Entertainment’s Raw.

The streaming giant and the TKO Group Holdings–owned WWE are starting to trumpet the onset of its 10-year rights deal, which is estimated at more than $5 billion. Coverage of the pro wrestling property’s flagship weekly show will immediately become a key tentpole for Netflix, which says it has addressed its large-scale performance problems from last month.

Scrutiny on Netflix has heightened in recent weeks as its coverage of the Nov. 15 Jake Paul–Mike Tyson boxing match suffered from widespread outages. The NFL is still standing behind the company, which reported an average global live audience of 108 million viewers for the fight—though those numbers were not tabulated or audited by a highly established, third-party measurement agency. 

“It was a big number, but you don’t know, and you can’t learn these things until you do them, so you take a big swing,” said Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria, of the Paul-Tyson event. “Our teams and our engineers are amazing, moved super quickly, and stabilized it, and many of the members had it back up and running pretty quickly. But we learn from these things. We’ve all obviously done a lot of stuff to learn and get ready for the NFL and Beyoncé [on Christmas], and so we’re totally ready and excited for WWE.”

WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque also conveyed calm about any possible streaming issues. 

“I’ll just say if it blinks a couple of times and we do 60 million [households], I’m good with that,” he joked. 

Though Raw is moving to a streaming platform, WWE insists the program will not become more adult-oriented in its tone and content—a critical element as Netflix markets it to advertisers.

“There’s some online chatter about, ‘oh, it’s going to be R-rated, or for us old folks, X-rated.’ That’s definitely not happening,” said WWE president Nick Khan. “It’s family-friendly, multi-generational, advertiser-friendly programming. It’s going to stay that way. I would look for more global flair, especially as the relationship continues to develop.”

Runaway Stock

While the debate continues on both Netflix’s technical competence and metrics, the company’s stock is extending its run as one of the most remarkable stories in all of U.S. business in 2024. Shares in Netflix have soared by 96% this year, and by more than 20% just in the last month, closing Thursday at another company high of nearly $918 each. 

The ongoing exuberance from investors owes heavily to Netflix’s standing as by far the world’s largest streaming service, with 282.7 million subscribers as of the end of its last fiscal quarter, and plenty of room for future growth with the accelerating development of its still-nascent advertising business.

Talor Gooch has made more than $43 million in individual earnings on LIV Golf since jumping from the PGA Tour in 2022. He’s using that money to try to create a sports ownership empire.

Gooch, who bought the Professional Bull Riders franchise Oklahoma Wildcatters earlier this year, is making a second professional team purchase, Front Office Sports has learned. The golfer, 33, is buying into the burgeoning Sport Fishing Championship, in which Gooch will own the Mississippi Blues Angling Club.

Those purchases were made through FJS Ventures, of which Gooch is the majority owner, alongside minority partners Preston Lyon and Brandon Bates. The total investment so far in the PBR and SFC teams is between $20 million and $30 million, Lyon tells FOS, with the Wildcatters representing the majority.

Gooch and FJS are also eyeing potential investment opportunities within the Big3, X Games, and a recently announced effort to bring a USL soccer franchise and new stadium to Oklahoma City, Lyon says. 

At LIV, Gooch has played for the RangeGoats GC team—where he took home $18 million for winning the 2023 individual championship—and most recently Smash GC. He doesn’t have any equity in those franchises as the team captains do, but that’s something he would be interested in down the road. “We will always want to sit at that table when the opportunity presents itself to potentially invest in LIV Golf, for sure,” Lyon says.

Gooch made nearly $10 million in winnings on the PGA Tour before joining LIV, which came with an eight-figure signing bonus. Coincidentally, at SFC, Gooch joins the team ownership ranks that include the PGA Tour’s 2024 FedExCup champion Scottie Scheffler, who earned more than $62 million this past season. SFC also has other current and former athletes as owners, like former NFL great Randy Moss, the Saints’ Alvin Kamara, the Dolphins’ Raheem Mostert, and the Hornets’ Grant Williams.

In 2025, SFC will have 16 team charters, as it transitions to a more structured model after originally launching in 2022. Gooch’s Mississippi club is the 11th team charter purchased, with one more to be announced, as 12 will be owned by individual groups, and four by the league next season.

Lyon is confident his and Gooch’s SFC team valuation can take a similar upward path that their PBR team has. “We bought the team in February, and we would probably classify our value increasing at around $15 million, so far,” he said, based on new fundraising that the Wildcatters have received this year.