The new Netflix deal will see the podcast abandon its usual format of Lineker, Shearer and Richards dialling in on video calls of varying quality from their respective homes, and instead turn to a glitzy New York studio.
Netflix says reporters will beam in from the England camp and fan zones, though there was no word in the streamer’s publicity material about Scotland, which has also qualified. Netflix is not expected to have the rights to show matches live, as the BBC and ITV will.
For both sports and video podcasting, “this is a landmark deal,” according to Laura Fisher, audio and entertainment analyst at MIDiA Research.
Though podcasts have traditionally been audio-only, video podcasts have been growing in popularity in recent years – and Netflix has been bolstering its portfolio to compete with YouTube. It announced a deal, external in October to show several sport, pop culture and true crime video podcasts on its platform.
Analysts say this could open up the show – and Lineker – to a global audience, given Netflix’s large presence outside the UK. Netflix confirmed to BBC News the show will be shown globally, not only in the UK.
Minal Modha, from Ampere Analysis, says her company’s research suggests football is now among the most popular sports in the US, a field in which American football, basketball and baseball loom large.
“For [Lineker] to be able to cement himself within that, kind of riding the crest of that wave, I think is going to be really, really helpful for his career,” she says.
While Richards is already known in the US given his punditry on the CBS network, this move “will firmly put Lineker on the global stage”, agrees Paolo Pescatore, technology, media and telecoms analyst at PP Foresight.
Big money is said to be involved. The Sun reported that the new deal will “dwarf” the £1.35m Lineker was paid by the BBC, which topped the corporation’s publicly disclosed salary list when it was released this year. While Ms Fisher didn’t want to speculate, she told us: “I do think it’s safe to guess Goalhanger will make more than the £1.35m.”
