Netflix takes a page out of Peloton’s playbook. From December 30, you can stream classes from Nike training club on the platform. In total, Netflix subscribers can access 30 hours of content in multiple languages and exercises.
For the uninitiated, Nike Training Club is a popular fitness app where users can follow high-intensity strength, yoga, and interval training led by Nike trainers. It is aimed at improving your strength, endurance and mobility at all fitness levels. While some classes require equipment, many do not. It’s very much in the vein of Apple Fitness Plus or Peloton, albeit without Nike-branded hardware.
According to Netflix, the episodes will be released in two batches. While the first arrives next week, the second will arrive sometime in 2023. The first batch contains 46 classes across five curated sessions: Kickstart Fitness with the Basics, Two Weeks to a Stronger Core, Fall in Love with Vinyasa Yoga, HIT & Strength with Tara and Feel Good Fitness.
This is a smart idea from Netflix. After all, who hasn’t been to a gym where at least one person wasn’t watching a show on an iPad? The Netflix app is also integrated into various exercise machines, such as treadmills and bicycles. What this does is entice exercisers to stay within the Netflix app for all their fitness needs.
A gym-goer could theoretically stream a Nike Training Club for a floor workout before switching to their favorite drama while pedaling away on a stationary bike – all within one app. But instead of having to spend more of its own money to produce original fitness content, it can just use Nike’s. Netflix uses a similar strategy with gaming. Although it has started its own game studio, the company also licenses previously released games such as Asphalt Extreme and Kentucky Route Zero.
While it’s useful, we’ll have to see if this idea has any staying power – which is probably why this is so strategically timed to take advantage of New Year’s resolutions. (Never mind that most of those New Year’s resolutions are gone by February.) On the other hand, if Netflix is really leaning into the rogue era by putting the hammer down on password sharers, it might try to push people to buy a Nike Training Club class in the middle of a 12-hour TV binge.
