Netflix and IMG map out production plans for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup

Netflix and IMG executives used a Leaders London conference appearance to detail how the streamer will handle its biggest live global sports effort to date: the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil. Brandon Riegg, Netflix's VP of nonfiction series and sports, and IMG President Adam Kelly spoke at the conference in the days before October 12, 2026, about a partnership Kelly said has been more than a year in the making. The tournament runs from June 24 to July 25, 2027, across eight host cities, and will be the first Women's World Cup to feature 32 teams.

The scale of the assignment is significant. According to reporting published October 12, 2026, IMG will serve as production partner for all 64 matches in Brazil, plus more than 100 hours of live studio programming. The deal includes English and Spanish coverage for viewers in the US, and English and French-language coverage in Canada. IMG will also support Netflix's coverage of the tournament draw in December. FIFA has described the agreement as the first competition Netflix has acquired in full, which makes the tournament a major test of the streamer's live sports operation.

Riegg framed next summer as a proving ground. "Next year will be the big test for all of us," he said at the conference. Netflix chose Brazil as the venue matters too, since the country is the streamer's biggest single market outside the US. Kelly pointed to Netflix's scale as the core advantage, citing the trust of more than 320 million members globally, and predicted the Women's World Cup will drive audiences and growth that benefit the whole football ecosystem and sport more broadly.

The production plan goes beyond the live matches. Riegg said the sides will create content on the platform to surround the World Cup games, whether that comes in the form of documentaries, feature films, podcasts or other mediums. There may also be experimentation with new camera angles, something Netflix tested with its Six Kings Slam tennis event last year, a production IMG handled. Kelly cautioned against over-engineering, saying live sports production should not add dozens of extra cameras for the sake of it, but instead find ways to communicate the narrative, storytelling, passion and action in a way that improves the experience for the fan.

The technical challenge is considerable. A tournament spread across eight Brazilian cities puts a premium on connectivity, and IMG has invested in remote-production workflows that let production teams work across locations rather than stationing every specialist inside each stadium. The company has used fibre, satellite, cloud and IP-based connectivity to move live signals between venues and production centres, and has demonstrated long-distance IP production including a 20,000-kilometre link between Tokyo and London carrying uncompressed, low-latency video. Its Stockley Park facility in London includes broadcast studios, production galleries, edit suites and facilities for radio, podcasting, dubbing and visual effects.

For Netflix, the World Cup caps a year of expanding live sports activity. In 2026 alone the streamer has carried the World Baseball Classic in Japan, its first MLB regular season games, the Home Run Derby and an NFL game abroad, with more ahead. Riegg said the company is getting smarter about live sports and continues to be open-minded and opportunistic about rights, while stressing that Netflix is a general entertainment service rather than a sports platform. Kelly, looking at the broader rights market, said the economics are getting harder to navigate and that producers must make the right content for the right demographics.

The stakes extend past one tournament. Live sports remain among the few forms of entertainment that can still aggregate large audiences, but Riegg warned rightsholders not to take that for granted given the constant increase of options competing for consumer time. How Netflix and IMG execute across 64 matches, multiple languages and a month of programming will shape how streamers and rights holders approach global events next. The draw in December offers the first checkpoint before the tournament kicks off in June 2027.