Is Netflix becoming old-school TV? Live channels and sports rights are next

"Watch what you want, when you want." That has been Netflix's core philosophy for the past two decades. Now the company is quietly tinkering with a TV program schedule.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Netflix is internally discussing plans to introduce live TV channels and bundle its service with other streaming platforms. The move signals that Netflix — long committed to an on-demand-only strategy — is rethinking even its most fundamental approach as competition intensifies.

The trigger was an annual management meeting held this past spring. Executives gave positive marks to earnings, subscriber retention and the performance of hit series such as "Bridgerton" and "Stranger Things." But one metric flashed a warning: user engagement — a measure of how long viewers watch and whether they see content through to the end. The industry treats the figure as a barometer for churn risk. In plain terms, the signal was that people are watching Netflix less.

The numbers were sobering. The share price has fallen more than 40 percent over the past year, and in April the company issued a second-quarter earnings outlook that missed market expectations. According to Nielsen, Netflix's share of US TV viewing time in April was 7.8 percent, the lowest since May last year. Netflix still holds the top spot among streaming services, but its growth engine is clearly cooling.

The card Netflix is now reaching for is, paradoxically, old-school TV. The company is considering placing live channels — which broadcast a specific program or genre continuously around the clock — on its home screen like conventional TV channels. The idea is to recreate the experience of flipping through channels with a remote, but inside a streaming app.

Netflix is also discussing a bundle service that would let subscribers access competing streaming platforms such as NBCUniversal's Peacock directly within the Netflix app. The concept mirrors the "app within an app" model used by Amazon and Apple, effectively transforming Netflix from a content provider into a platform operator.

Seismic shifts across the media industry are accelerating the push. Fox announced last month it would acquire Roku for about $25 billion, while Comcast declared it would spin off its media business. Paramount is pursuing an acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Disney+, Max and YouTube are all growing their user bases rapidly, as are free, ad-supported services such as Tubi and the Roku Channel. Netflix is increasingly surrounded on all sides.

Netflix has already cracked its identity as a pure subscription platform by introducing an ad-supported tier. More recently it added video podcasts and YouTube-style open content with lower production costs, and earlier this month it announced it would incorporate short-form content from BuzzFeed and Condé Nast. Each move is an experiment aimed at keeping viewers on the platform even a minute longer.

A push into sports broadcasting rights is also in the works. According to multiple sources, Netflix is considering bidding for the rights to broadcast the 2030 and 2034 FIFA World Cups. Live sports guarantee real-time viewership and, because ads cannot be skipped, they are well suited to boosting advertising revenue. The calculation is that live programming could be a key lever in Netflix's goal of doubling its advertising revenue — which stood at about $1.5 billion last year — by 2026.