Netflix dip into cricket after buying IPL access rights... and Mumbai Indians will be the focus

SIMON HUGHES: It's a clever idea. Footage of the actual matches will be minimal. It is not about that. It is about the lives of the characters involved both on the pitch and backstage

Given that the likes of Facebook and Amazon have considerably more financial muscle than the traditional TV stations, it was only a matter of time before one of the media monoliths bought into cricket.

It is the sport, after all, that reaches many parts of the world that football cannot and can tap into a two billion-plus support base.

Amazon tried to buy some IPL rights but were out-manoevered by Star TV who secured all live media rights to the tournament for the next five years for an eye-watering £1.97bn. But stealing up on the ropes are Netflix.

They bought certain access rights to the IPL and have just embarked on an eight-part documentary series following the Mumbai Indians throughout this year’s tournament. 

It's a clever idea. Footage of the actual matches will be minimal. It is not about that. It is about the lives of the characters involved both on the pitch and backstage.

It will create a wealth of human interest stories as they follow the team and its supporters around. It will feature household cricketing names and Bollywood stars but also the rickshaw driver working the strip along Marine Drive near the Wankhede stadium and the many people who operate behind the scenes to keep the show on the road.

^{Netflix are buying into cricket}

It will be a cricket version of Friday Night Lights, the hugely successful drama about college football in the US.  

This is not just a sign that the IPL is one of the most sought after properties in sport - the cost of TV rights has almost tripled whereas those for the English Premier League, for example, has decreased recently.

It is also an indication of India’s burgeoning middle class and the exponential growth of the smartphone there. India currently has 300m smartphone users but that is expected to rise to 530m by the end of this year. Consequently, there is also a huge rise in video streaming. Netflix aim to capitalise on that.

At present they have 120 million subscribers, about half from the US. It is easy to see why they are focusing on India. Getting Sachin Tendulkar (the Mumbai Indians team mentor) on the show a few times will pretty much guarentee another 50 million. 

It might also serve as a useful introduction to cricket for mystified Americans. I tried to bring them up to speed with an explanation of cricket and the IPL in the first episode. We shot it at Lord’s last week.

But the viewers  will rapidly be transported to the chaos of Mumbai - the 21st-century home of cricket. It will finally disassociate genteel behaviour and good English manners from the American image of cricket. There’s nothing genteel or well mannered about the IPL (or Mumbai.)

Donald Trump might even like to get into the show, which is due to be aired in early 2019.

But Netflix missed a trick. They want real-life drama: they should have followed the England Test team around for the last six months…