Editing Openai/69332148-fa98-8011-874a-3495657e6654 (section)

=== Assistant: Alright, let’s run that fantasy scenario… but I’m gonna tell you exactly where it breaks and where it could actually wo… ===
Alright, let’s run that fantasy scenario… but I’m gonna tell you exactly where it breaks and where it could actually work.

And yes, it would be wildly cheaper than F1.

Where your argument ''could'' land
• DH athletes are characters built for reality TV
Troy Brosnan, Vali, Pierron, Minnaar, Hart… these people are walking story arcs
• Teams don’t have PR machines scrubbing their personalities like F1 does
• Crashes, heartbreak, wild talent, unfair mechanicals – it’s pure drama
• XC has rivalries, national pride, and the Olympics halo
• Relative cost: you can shoot a full season of DH + XC for less than a single F1 episode’s travel budget

The part Netflix WILL like
• MTB has global youth appeal
• Netflix desperately wants Gen Z sports properties
• F1 was dead until DTS – they know the template
• If Netflix built a Drive to Survive: Dirt Edition, it would hit.
Not mainstream like F1 but big enough to justify a doc-series budget.

Where your argument dies for live coverage
• DTS worked because F1 already had a massive live broadcast ecosystem
• Netflix didn’t take on the cost, they did the doc part
• With MTB, Netflix would be inheriting the full cost
• Live broadcast is the expensive part, not the storytelling

BUT… here’s the real lever nobody talks about
You actually could win this argument if you framed MTB as:
doc-series first, live coverage second.
That’s the crack in the door.

Netflix knows:
• Live audiences are tiny vs. DTS streaming audiences
• The doc carried the sport, not the broadcast
• MTB is way cheaper to produce behind-the-scenes because teams are tiny, budgets are low, drama is high, and athletes aren’t media-trained robots

So your pitch would be:
• Make a DTS-style series about the DH circuit
• Produce scaled-back but high-quality race highlights, not full live shows
• Bundle XC inside the same doc as the “tactical chess match” narrative
• Turn the World Cup into a character-based universe
• Let Red Bull or someone else do the hardcore live stream for the niche fans

If Netflix bought that? It could actually explode MTB.
Not the live ratings. Those will always be niche.
But the athletes? Household names, same trajectory as F1 drivers post-DTS.

Here’s the honest truth
• Live DH is never gonna be a mainstream event
• A Netflix doc-series absolutely could be
• And yes — they could do it for a fraction of what Drive to Survive costs
MTB travel budgets are the cost of catering at an F1 paddock

If you want, I’ll sketch the exact pitch deck Netflix would greenlight, including episode arcs, cost comparisons, and why DH is a better storytelling sport than XC.