Goooaaalll! For Netflix

PRESENTED BY VIIA

Happy Holidays, Future Party! We’ll be off the next couple of days drinking way too much eggnog, but we hope that you all have a wonderful time celebrating with family, opening gifts, and arguing about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not. (Spoiler alert: it is, and it’s the best one).

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Yeah, Netflix Wants Sports

Netflix has secured a deal with FIFA to stream the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031.

The Big Competition: Netflix has been ramping up its licensing of mostly one-off sports exhibitions that the streamer can turn into bonafide events (celebrity boxing matches, Christmas Day NFL games) while also refining its livestream capabilities all around the world.

Between the Titles: Women’s pro soccer may have landed its biggest stage yet.

• Netflix picked up exclusive streaming rights in the US and Puerto Rico for the 2027 and 2031 tournaments. The 2027 games will take place in Brazil.

• Netflix will broadcast the game in both English and Spanish.

• It’ll also program documentaries and series around the games and top players, similar to Formula 1: Drive to Survive.

Closing Thoughts: The Netflix deal is a big step up for FIFA, which previously licensed its English rights to the World Cup to Fox Sports (which had no streaming component) and its Spanish rights to Telemundo. And it’s a savvy play for Netflix, which is getting into women’s sports just as they’re having a huge surge in popularity. Considering those cultural forces, expect the Women’s World Cup to eventually reach the viewership of the men’s — the marquee tournament in global sports.

Together with VIIA

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Young People Prefer Cult Brands

A new study by communications firm Confidant and marketing insights firm Vytal found that younger generations are opting to engage with and buy from brands that feel more niche and authentic.

Why It Hits: Culture has fragmented into countless niche communities… meaning most brands should focus on marketing to smaller, passionate fanbases rather than trying to reach a mainstream culture that barely exists outside of blockbuster movies, superstar musicians, and institutional companies like Coca-Cola and Apple. 

Behind the Purchases: Confidant and Vytal surveyed 1,000 adults aged 18 to 59 on their brand loyalty. (We guess Boomers don’t count, for some reason.)

Some findings, per Axios:

• 88% of Americans “engage in niche communities.”

• 45% of Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X Americans “feel more connected to these communities than to mainstream culture.”

• 46% of people prefer to engage with or shop from a brand that caters to a niche community rather than the mainstream.

• When it comes to Gen Z, that share of niche shoppers jumps to 53%.

The Future: The study also found that when people feel like they’re part of a community, recommendations from community members carry a lot of weight — 53% are likely to try a brand simply because someone within that community recommended it. But brands can also create their own community — 51% say feeling a part of that community is important to them. So, the key to marketing a product in the new year may not be about advertising but building a distinct community that wants to test products as a means of connecting with like-minded people.

Together with Nike

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DEEP DIVES

• Read: WSJ details the explosive battle between Amazon MGM and longtime James Bond producer Eon Productions over making more 007 titles.

• Explore: Wired created a nifty visualizer of every copyright lawsuit against AI firms winding their way through the courts.

• Listen: Why are people putting their fitness achievements on their resumes? Your Money Briefing tries to find out.

61.1% of you voted Yes in Friday’s poll: Do you think AI could ever become truly conscious?

“I don’t see why it isn’t already conscious. It can do more than an insect or even an animal in terms of intelligence, and yet we consider flies conscious, don’t we?”

“Even if it’s not ‘consciousness’ in the way we define it — who’s to say a different kind of self-awareness is not as important or worthy of respect? Star Trek has been grappling with this concept for decades.”

“AI is essentially a child of humanity’s own making. If we show these ‘mind children’ only cruelty, then they, too, will become cruel. But if we treat AI with kindness and an ethically considered mutual respect, we can imagine a different future in which the co-creation of daily reality becomes ever more real. Consciousness is the new frontier; what will we do with the assistance of superintelligences? We have big challenges before us, but we can thread this needle if we’re careful and wise and humbler than we are now.”

“It’s a created code that can be altered by the creator… it’s a tool, not a human.”

“It’s a great idea for 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Terminator, but it can never match human ingenuity or impulse creativity.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment / Media

🎥 The Slamdance Film Festival — which is moving out of Park City, Utah, for the first time — announced its 2025 festival lineup.

📰 Famed tech reporter Kara Swisher wants to make a serious bid to purchase The Washington Post from Jeff Bezos.

🎤 Spotify to Drake: No, we didn’t conspire to inflate streams for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”

→ Technology

🚗 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is clearing the road for automakers to roll out autonomous vehicles that don’t have steering wheels or pedals.

🤖 OpenAI is prepping yet another more advanced reasoning AI model.

🍝 New York has officially shut down the dining-reservation black market.

→ Creator Economy

📱 The Kids Online Safety Act just doesn’t have enough momentum to become law.

👀 YouTube is getting tired of all the clickbait on its platform, starting with a crackdown in India.

😴 Livestream platform Parti is banning sleep streams, which creators are doing to boost their metrics.

Together with Roku

Run CTV Ads on Roku This Q5

Peak shopping season isn’t over yet! Two thirds of consumers plan to shop the week after Christmas, and “Q5” – the period between Christmas and mid-January – has become a significant shopping window.* Roku Ads Manager makes it easy to run self-serve CTV ads and reach shoppers where they’re streaming post-holidays. Get started for as little as $500 and find your next customers on the big screen. (*National Retail Federation, 2023)

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