Does the Netflixisation of sport spoil the action?

It is perhaps no surprise that Mr Verstappen is now keen to be involved. The on- and off-track drama of “Drive to Survive” has been credited with creating millions of F1 fans, particularly in America, where the sport had previously struggled against less stuffy competitors such as NASCAR. Its popularity has encouraged Netflix to release copycat programmes. In January viewers got “Break Point”, a tennis series, and in February “Full Swing”, about the American-run PGA golf tour. Later this year they will be able to watch “Tour de France: Unchained” and “Untitled FIFA World Cup Series” (even the pun-writers are struggling to keep up).

Fly-on-the-wall documentaries are nothing new (there have been plenty about football teams), but streaming services are now racing to produce more. Amazon is following the Australian men’s cricket team, and Disney is going behind the scenes of the takeover of Wrexham, a Welsh football club, by the actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds. All this coverage promises more money for the sports’ organisers, and hours of footage to keep fans hooked. But it also risks making sports little more than carefully produced entertainment.

Lagging a year behind the new season of F1, “Drive to Survive” gives its creators time to edit thousands of hours of footage and the advantage of knowing the eventual winners and losers. It focuses on personalities, with teams’ bosses and drivers’ partners getting almost as much attention as the competitors and their cars. The expletive-filled outbursts of Guenther Steiner, the boss of the Haas team, and the withering looks of Toto Wolff, his opposite number at Mercedes, have turned them into unlikely stars. James Gay-Rees, one of the producers, has compared the series to a soap opera.

Sport has always lent itself to narrative, as competitors strive for glory. But “Drive to Survive” has been accused of blurring the line between fact and fiction. Drivers have said the show misrepresents what happens. Lando Norris, a driver for McLaren, claimed that producers made it seem as though a complaint he made over the radio in one race was made during a different race, in order to heighten the tension between him and a rival. Pierre Gasly, another driver, has described the show as “kind of made up”.

Even if “Drive to Survive” were scrupulously accurate, the experience of watching sport as a drama is very different from watching it live. It can place as much emphasis on charisma as on talent, implying that boring athletes are less worthy of the attention of new fans. Roger Federer is rightly regarded as one of tennis’s all-time greats. In “The Master”, a book by Christopher Clarey, Mr Federer’s time off the court is summed up as “low on controversy”. A less kind observer might call it dull. To watch him on court, however, is anything but.

The latest sport turning to Netflix to boost its popularity is rugby, which has for a long time struggled to expand its global audience. That is in part because the game has moved on from an emphasis on speed and skill, and instead rewards strength and size. As well as taking a brutal physical toll on players, this has also made the game more plodding and predictable. Attempts by organisers to inject dynamism have largely failed. But next year a series made by the same company that makes “Drive to Survive” promises to take viewers “inside the exhilarating world” of the Six Nations, Europe’s annual international tournament.

If the series does well it could create a new generation of fans. Drama off the pitch can certainly enliven an otherwise uneventful tournament. But it might also convince bigwigs that powerful personalities matter more than strong competition. That would be a shame, especially in a team sport. For rugby to flourish, the game itself needs to be popular, not just the people playing it. It seems many in the sport agree. Some squads are reportedly refusing to give the producers the access they hoped for. If they do get cameras into the changing rooms viewers may get even more swagger and profanity than they bargained for. Warren Gatland, Wales’s coach, said recently that “in a rugby environment…the language used isn’t always appropriate”. Some fans may want a soap opera. Others would prefer to just enjoy the match.

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