How the makers of ‘Drive to Survive’ are upping their game to be multisport streaming stars
The story has been as exciting as drivers burning rubber and brushing walls to eek out victory in iconic race cars made by the likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari, and McLaren. One cannot underestimate the impact that the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive has had on the growth of Formula One fandom since its 2019 debut—particularly in the United States. The show, which has now aired five seasons on the streaming giant, has fundamentally altered the sport.
How so? In 2018, about 110,000 people attended the Formula One stop in Austin, Texas. By 2022, that number had become a record-setting 400,000. Meanwhile, the show’s ability to build an emotional connection to the sport with both existing fans and newcomers through the lives and personalities of its stars have boosted TV ratings as well. ESPN’s 2022 F1 ratings were 28% higher than 2021 overall, with female viewership up 34% and the coveted 18-to-49 demographic up 29%. The new Miami Grand Prix was the most-watched live F1 telecast ever in the United States, with 2.58 million viewers. That growth—and its ability to attract more advertising revenue—has been reflected in ESPN’s U.S. broadcast deal to air Formula One, which rose from about $5 million per season to an estimated $75 million to $90 million annually for the agreement signed last year to air F1 through 2025.
According to Formula One, Drive to Survive‘s fourth season was the most-watched Netflix series in 33 countries, including the United States.
For Box to Box Films, the production company behind the series founded by Paul Martin and James Gay-Rees in 2016, this impact has translated into a boom of other docuseries opportunities over the past 12 months, across a wide variety of sports. In March 2022, it announced a Tour de France project with Netflix, set to debut later this year. This past February, the fifth season of Drive to Survive launched, and a new Kentucky Derby project was announced. It also marked the launch of its World Surf League-based show Make or Break on Apple TV+. That added to a deal that Box to Box signed with World Surf League in June 2022 to produce multiple other documentary projects. Last month, Major League Soccer announced a deal with Box to Box, and Netflix renewed both its ATP and WTA tennis docuseries, Break Point, and PGA Tour-based golf series Full Swing for second seasons.
As with any pro athlete or team at the top of their game, the question is how Box to Box can scale both its business and creative process to keep the magic alive.
For Warren Smith, Box to Box Films’ head of sport, who joined the company in 2020 to lead production on season one of Make or Break, he’s well aware of the challenge. “When I came in, Drive to Survive was the one, and it was my job to help create the next version of that,” says Smith. “Obviously, there is a DNA at Box to Box of what works, but we don’t want to make cookie-cutter versions of the same show. There are elements of each sport that allow you to tell certain types of stories. As we grow, it’s not trying to do the same thing in every sport, but taking a step back and asking, What makes this sport different? What’s going to make this story interesting to a viewer?“
Each league or organization that works with Box to Box is aware of the Netflix effect on Formula One and undoubtedly sees a Drive to Survive-like uplift in their dreams. The idea for Make or Break came during a surf lesson for Box to Box cofounder Martin when he was on vacation. When his instructor found out he was behind Drive to Survive, he said, “You should do the same thing for surfing!” Martin recalls. Cue a post-holiday call to World Surf League CEO Erik Logan, another Drive to Survive fan, who signed on almost immediately.
According to the PGA, Full Swing peaked as Netflix’s No. 2-ranked TV show in both the U.S. and the U.K., hit No. 1 in Ireland, and has consistently been in the Netflix Top 10 worldwide. A PGA spokesperson tells Fast Company that according to Nielsen, 64% of Full Swing viewers were between the ages of 25 and 54, which is a significantly younger viewership than the golf association’s other media platforms.
Smith says that while they are aware of the business implications that the company’s work can have on these sports and athletes, that value isn’t yet factored into the partnership deals. “It’s an ever-evolving situation because this is a really new thing,” says Smith. “When you look at the way of the world, the docuseries and how it evolves will now play a part in the structuring or planning of any big sport. It will be interesting to see where it is five years from now.”
Sports documentary series are not new. HBO and NFL Films debuted Hard Knocks in 2001. Even in just the past five years, we’ve had multiple seasons of HBO’s 24/7 series and Amazon’s All or Nothing. And Netflix’s Sunderland Til I Die inspired several others, including Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney who, after buying the Welsh football team, Wrexham AFC, immediately created Welcome to Wrexham to elevate its standing. Sports fans and streaming audiences are spoiled with sports documentaries.
When asked how Box to Box differentiates its work, Smith is tight-lipped through a smile. “If I told you what it was, then everyone would do it,” he says. “The key for us is for the people, the players, the surfers, all to be able to watch it and say, ‘Yeah, that’s what it’s like. That is what that was like for me at that time.’ That is one thing we really try and do. Achieving it is very tough, but you don’t want a subject to look at it and say that’s not what was happening. We’re not making gotcha TV. We are trying to show what happened in a compelling way. You get that from spending time, building relationships, and building trust with key people.”
Part of that means making sure from the start that expectations are clear—with the leagues, the athletes, and their agents—that Box to Box is not interested in propaganda, nor does it want to be just another media obligation. “We don’t force anyone to do it because that doesn’t make for good storytelling,” says Smith. “If someone sees this as an obligation or another media appearance, it doesn’t work for us. We want to feel at the edges of everything, therefore being able to show a different perspective. We prefer to film those (media) obligations, not be one of them.”
If there is a Box to Box DNA, it can be traced back to cofounders Martin and Gay-Rees and their ability to translate the sensibility of critically acclaimed and award-winning feature docs Senna and Amy to these series.
Over the course of the company’s rapid growth in the past few years, Smith credits both cofounders with how they manage their time across projects. “Both are passionate for what we’re doing as a company, so it might be that one will take a bigger role earlier in the project, while the other will come in on the edit,” says Smith. “It just means everyone keeps fresh, and my job is to help smooth that process. How do we keep the creative vision as we scale up? It’s about managing those guys and making sure they’re coming in at the right times and not too early or too late.”
There has also been a focus on growing talent from within. Smith himself came in for Make or Break, and now oversees multiple productions as head of sport and factual. “It’s about making sure everyone who comes in the door gets their feet wet properly,” he says. “I came in as a showrunner, I understood that work with them, then progressed into this role.”
As the company and its production schedule grows, Smith says it may take some lessons from its subjects. “We strive to make sure everyone on our team is very passionate about this, not necessarily about the sport itself,” he says. “Passionate about getting the best story in that sport and fostering a bit of competitive rivalry within our shows isn’t a bad thing. You’re in a company making sports doc series, so you want your teams to be competitive.”
The era of all-encompassing sports docs is upon us, and Smith doesn’t see it slowing down. Next up for Box to Box is the Tour de France doc. “To put yourself on a bike and go 100 mph downhill in lycra, and if you come off a cliff, you’ll die? You have to have a certain type of person to do that,” he says. “Those are the stories we want to tell. That sport is a mixture of the highest level of endurance and a game of chess. That’s coming out later this year and will really blow people’s minds.”
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