All Blacks in talks for major Netflix documentary series, project plans changed after Scott Robertson exit
The All Blacks are coming to the small screen in a big way, with talks to produce a major behind-the-scenes documentary series to air on Netflix believed to be well advanced.
The Herald understands that New Zealand Rugby (NZR) had been talking to Netflix late last year about collaborating on a production around the All Blacks, but following the unexpected post-season twist that saw head coach Scott Robertson jettisoned, the national body wanted to reconfigure the project.
The plan had been for the docuseries to be built around the events of the 2025 season, using footage from in-house videographers. But the biggest and most newsworthy event happened eight weeks after the last test, when Robertson was let go two years into his four-year contract.
Now that Dave Rennie has taken over as head coach, there is a compelling storyline to be drawn by connecting the 2025 post-season drama to the events of this year, and detail how the All Blacks perform under new management and how the team regenerate, 18 months out from the World Cup.
If agreement is reached, it’s likely the behind-the-scenes documentary series will air in 2027.
But while it may seem like a major endorsement to be linked with Netflix, which is the world’s largest streaming platform, the Herald understands that there was a humbling element to the negotiations as NZR was told the All Blacks and rugby are not big enough entities to command a licensing fee.
The Six Nations, which worked with Netflix on two docuseries seasons of Full Contact in 2023 and 2024, was paid an access and licensing fee of about $2 million, while former English footballer Sir David Beckham was paid $35m for a four-part series that reviewed parts of his career and family life.
In April last year, in an interview with the Herald, NZR Commercial’s former general manager Yarnie Guthrie said: “The answer is absolutely yes,” when asked about whether the All Blacks would be interested in a long-form content series shown on a major streaming platform.
“That could be a combination of co-production, or our own production that is syndicated out,” Guthrie said.
“Or indeed a direct deal with one of the big carriers and those things are absolutely being worked on and that is absolutely part of the plan.
“There is plenty of interest and one of the things they understand is that we are one of those legacy brands that make those sorts of documentaries make sense.
“When you have a fan base the size of ours that has got a truly global distribution, people in every country, different religions that have this brand love for the All Blacks, that’s where a documentary like that truly makes sense.”
The All Blacks have dabbled in the world of big streamers before, having agreed a deal with Amazon Prime in 2017 to produce a six-part series called All or Nothing.
It was a franchised formula following the team through the series against the British & Irish Lions and the Rugby Championship, with cameras having (limited) access to team meetings, training and other places viewers wouldn’t normally see.
It is understood that the All Blacks were paid about $3m for All or Nothing.
The financial mechanics of the deal NZR is hoping to strike with Netflix will see the All Blacks’ four in-house videographers capture content throughout the season – as they did last year – and then give that footage to a production house to edit and fashion into a series under Netflix’ guidance.
NZR would be looking for Netflix to pay for the external agency’s production costs and come out of the deal cost- neutral.
The value would come from the global exposure of the All Blacks being on Netflix, which has more than 300 million subscribers.
If the All Blacks can win low-cost, global exposure on Netflix, it would fit neatly into NZR’s strategy to grow the team’s recognition in strategic markets such as the USA, UK and Western Europe, and to build a worldwide fan base that can be monetised.
Additionally, former NZR board member Bailey Mackey, who runs the production house Pango Productions, has won close to $1m of NZ on Air funding to make a four-part series about this year’s Greatest Rivalry tour that will be shown on TVNZ+.
Finding a production partner that the All Blacks trust and that can deliver a production to Netflix’ standards will be one of the other key challenges to get the project a greenlight.
NZR produced a long-form documentary series called In Their Own Words in both 2023 and 2024 – using the Sony-backed broadcast agency Whisper.
But the UK-based Whisper has since closed its New Zealand office.
Leon Kirkbeck, who is the founder of the agency Augusto and was a producer on Prime Minister (the feature-length production on Dame Jacinda Ardern which was co-directed by his wife Michelle Walsh), was working as a camera operator with the All Blacks last year.
The decision to work with a major streamer such as Netflix comes after NZR decided to fold its content platform NZR+ into the existing allblacks.com website, raising questions about why the national body built its own distribution network three years ago as part of a major content strategy to win new overseas fans.