A Premier League version of 'Drive to Survive' could already be in the works

With so much of F1's new-found popularity being credited to Netflix series Drive to Survive, reports suggest that a Premier League version is now in the works.

While football doesn't exactly struggle to command large audiences globally, a fly-on-the-wall style documentary in the same vein as Drive to Survive could help attract a new generation of fans.

According to The Times, Box to Box Fllms - producers of DTS for Netflix and Amazon's Make Us Dream documentary (about Steven Gerrard) - have approached the Premier League over the idea of making it the subject of a new series.

A documentary about one Premier League club would be nothing new, as All or Nothing has already been granted behind the scenes access to Arsenal, Manchester City and Spurs for a whole season.

Amazon Prime

However, one of the main selling points of DTS is the fact that is follows multiple teams across a season, including those who aren't battling for major honours.

As per The Times, a Premier League series would seek to do something similar, brining new life to the BTS genre of documentaries.

They add that Box to Box Films have already been in touch with several Premier League clubs about the possibility of filming with them in the future.

One of the possible incentives for the Premier League to permit filming to take place is to try and capture a greater share of the US sport viewership market.

Football has made great inroads in America over the past few decades, but it still hasn't quite cracked the mainstream.

One of the biggest successes of Drive to Survive is the popularity the sport of F1 now enjoys Stateside, as there will soon be three Formula 1 races in America.

Max Verstappen's dramatic world title win was a central theme of DTS's fourth series. (Image credit: PA)

Box to Box Films co-founder Paul Martin recently explained the galvanising impact the series has had on viewership numbers.

He told The Guardian: “When we went to the Austin GP it really hit home."

“Attendance had gone up and tickets sold out in record time and people in hotels and at the track just kept referencing the show. "When a woman from Texas came up and told me her favourite driver was Esteban Ocon and I thought: ‘Wow, this show has really broken through’.”

A Premier League version would have to carefully strike the balance between drama and reality, as one of the main criticisms of DTS from hardcore F1 fans was the misleading nature of some key scenes.

Most notably, team radio was placed on-top of footage from a different race in an attempt to ramp up the drama on screen.

One suspects football fans wouldn't be as forgiving if similar editing tricks were used for a Premier League doc.

Would you like to see a Premier League version of DTS? Let us know what you think.