The streaming giant Netflix has been actively considering live television to retain viewership as attention spans for their original content dwindles.
A recent Wall Street Journal report said Netflix may soon be adding live channels to its service, ones that could focus on a particular subject or genre. As Vulture noted, the streaming service Peacock, not to mention Paramount+, have already adopted this type of model with “live channels that play random episodes of Vanderpump Rules or true-crime documentaries.”
“They also shared that they’ve considered creating bundles with other streaming services, where their current users can sign up through Netflix,” reported Vulture. “Recently, Netflix announced it will add content from Condé Nast, BuzzFeed, and now video podcasts from Vox Media.”
“The big pitches come after Netflix shared a decline in viewership; it fell to 7.8% in April, the last time it was that low was in May 2025. The streamer will reportedly share updated viewership numbers next week,” it added.
According to TheWrap, the new features would “add to the new ground the streamer has broken to keep its subscribers engaged, which includes pushes into live programming and video podcasts and embracing social media creators, to name a few.”
“Several of those pushes have ushered in success for the network, including the streamer’s growing live programming,” it added.
As Breitbart News recently reported, Netflix has been struggling to retain viewers with audiences abandoning shows after just one season.
One of the streaming giant’s most-watched shows of 2023, One Piece, lost more than 30 percent of its audience during the second season, while Season two Netflix’s Beef suffered a drop of more than 70 percent, according to a report by Bloomberg.
To make things worse, the most recent season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of Netflix’s most-watched shows in 2024, saw a loss of more than 60 percent of its viewers in the course of its first week.
Moreover, both of Netflix’s Squid Game and Stranger Things didn’t have the same engagement they did in the beginning.
Netflix looking to expand into live TV comes after it failed to acquire the movie studios Warner Bros., losing to Paramount-Skydance in a bidding war.
What’s more, Netflix is already reaping the rewards of live TV in France.
“French commercial broadcaster TF1 says it has seen record streaming figures just three weeks into a new carriage deal with Netflix, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. “The deal, which came into effect last month, sees Netflix in France carry live broadcasts and on-demand content from TF1 and its on-demand platform TF1+.”