The independent British production company behind The Rest Is Football has secured a significant deal with Netflix, converting a 40-day World Cup experiment into a two-year partnership. This move serves as a masterclass for any UK business looking to collaborate with a global partner.
The show, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, will return to Netflix for the 2026/27 Premier League season, following a daily run that made it one of the streamer's hits of the summer. The series appeared in Netflix's Daily Top 10 TV chart every day of its 40-day run, peaking at No. 1 in the UK.
The extended deal takes the partnership through to the next Euros, held across the UK and Ireland in 2028. New episodes will air on Netflix from August 2026, every Monday and Friday, with the three hosts appearing throughout the full 40 weeks of the Premier League and Champions League season.
The structure of the deal is instructive for SME owners, demonstrating how to build a successful partnership. The production company used the World Cup as a proving ground, demonstrated demand with daily chart data, then negotiated a longer contract from a position of strength. Crucially, the company remains the producer, keeping control of the brand it built.
The same approach is behind Goalhanger's new venture arm backing creator-led media businesses: owning the intellectual property, owning the audience relationship, and letting the platforms compete for content rather than the other way round.
Co-Founder of Goalhanger, Tony Pastor, highlighted the importance of preserving the show's unique qualities, saying "We launched The Rest Is Football after the last World Cup, and it's incredible to see how far the show has come in such a short space of time. We began from such a strong position because Gary, Alan, and Micah are genuinely close friends who talk about football together constantly."
The podcast is not being sacrificed for the streaming deal, with Goalhanger running both in parallel, protecting the audience that made the show valuable in the first place. This approach is familiar to any founder who has diversified without abandoning their core revenue line.
Host Gary Lineker expressed his enthusiasm for the renewed partnership, saying "We had a brilliant time making the show during the World Cup, and the response was incredible, so it's great to be back on Netflix every week throughout the Premier League season."
The deal highlights the trend of linear television's biggest names moving to streaming and YouTube, with UK viewing migrating away from broadcast schedules. Netflix carried the show globally during the World Cup, included in all plans.
The message is clear for Britain's independent producers: build something audiences genuinely want, prove it with data, and even the world's biggest platforms will come to you.
