Netflix has been experimenting with the idea of live shows for a while, breaking the mold of on-demand video. Now the company is seemingly close to bringing live content to your TV.

Kasey Moore of What’s on Netflix spotted a Netflix test page in Google search results, labelled as “Watch Live Streaming OAD Test Title 14.”  The page is no longer accessible, but it was apparently up long enough to be indexed by search engines — it’s also visible in DuckDuckGo search results. The rest of the description appears to be the synopsis for Lockwood & Co., a Netflix series that premieres later in January.

The page seems to indicate Netflix is testing live content more broadly. Netflix’s plans for live content were first reported in May 2022, when Deadline claimed live content was “in the early stages of development.” Netflix confirmed it a few days later, saying the functionality could be used for stand-up comedy specials and other content that works well with a live setting.

Netflix only explicitly mentioned comedy specials, but it’s not hard to see a live content feature being helpful for sports coverage. Other streaming platforms have been snatching up broadcasting rights to sports events over the past few years, like the MLB’s Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+ and NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. NBCUniversal, which already has US rights to broadcast the Olympic Games in the United States, have used live coverage of the Olympics to bolster its Peacock streaming service.

There’s still no public timeline for when live content will appear on Netflix, but it seems like it could be soon.

Source: Kasey Moore (Twitter)
Via: Cord Cutters News