Netflix has reportedly signed Gary Lineker’s The Rest Is Football podcast in a deal which will see the former BBC presenter go up against his old employer at next year’s World Cup.
Lineker is expected set to earn millions of pounds from selling the rights to the show, in which he discusses topical football matters with guests Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
The Rest Is Football, produced by Lineker’s Goalhanger stable, lived on BBC Sounds until earlier this year when the corporation axed the long-serving presenter.
It regularly achieves 1m-plus views on YouTube and has previously struck deals with Dazn for a show around this year’s Club World Cup and LaLiga in Spanish football.
As part of the collaboration with Netflix, The Rest Is Football is set to become a daily show, according to The Sun. It currently goes out three times a week.
Netflix and Goalhanger have been approached for comment.
The move combines the US streaming giant’s increasing interest in sports properties with its push into podcasting, evidenced in a tie-up with Spotify announced in October.
Netflix has achieved huge numbers by showing live boxing and will broadcast former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s clash with influencer-turned-fighter Jake Paul later this month.
Top of the pods: Rise of Lineker’s Goalhanger
Lineker, 65, has turned Goalhanger into a production powerhouse which also owns popular shows The Rest Is Politics, The Rest Is History and The Rest Is Entertainment.
The former England forward’s 25-year stint as Match of the Day presenter on a £1.35m salary ended at the end of last season, following an antisemitism row.
He apologised after using an emoji of a rat in a social media post about Zionism, saying he had not realised its historical association with anti-Jewish feeling.
Before that he had been due to leave MOTD but stay on at the BBC to present its FA Cup coverage and sign off by hosting its programming at next summer’s World Cup.
The BBC and Lineker scrapped those plans and he left in May, however. The move was described as a mutual decision although he has since said he felt pushed out.