In a first, Netflix, will be live streaming two NFL regular season games on Christmas Day. The kick-off for first game is 1 p.m. (ET) and will feature the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs visiting the Pittsburgh Steelers. The second game will start at 4:30 p.m. (ET) with the Houston Texans hosting […]
In a first, Netflix, will be live streaming two NFL regular season games on Christmas Day. The kick-off for first game is 1 p.m. (ET) and will feature the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs visiting the Pittsburgh Steelers. The second game will start at 4:30 p.m. (ET) with the Houston Texans hosting the Baltimore Ravens. All four AFC teams made the NFL playoffs last season and all are playoff bound this season. With Christmas falling on a Wednesday (a rare day to schedule NFL games), all four teams will be playing on the Saturday prior to Christmas.
Last May, the NFL and Netflix negotiated a three-year deal. As part of the agreement, Netflix will also stream at least one game on Christmas Day in 2025 and 2026. The Wall Street Journal reports for the 2024 doubleheader Netflix, is paying the NFL about $150 million ($75 million per game).
Netflix is going all out to make the Christmas doubleheader a festive event. Prior to the games, Netflix announced Mariah Carey will, in a prerecorded taping, sing her holiday megahit “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. In addition, for the second game, Houston native Beyoncé will be performing live at halftime. (Beyoncé had headlined the halftime show of Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.) In addition, with the Kansas Chiefs playing in the first game, there is always the possibility Taylor Swift will be in attendance. (Last Christmas, Taylor Swift was in attendance at a Chiefs game.)
CBS will be producing both games and the NFL Network will be responsible for pre and postgame coverage as well as halftime. For their coverage Netflix will be relying on familiar NFL names. In the first game, Ian Eagle will be providing play-by-play coverage of the game. Eagle will be joined by fellow CBS announcers Nate Burleson and J.J. Watt for additional commentary. Melanie Collins of CBS and Stacey Dales of the NFL Network will be the sideline reporters.
For the second game, Noah Eagle (son of Ian) of NBC Sports will be the play-by-play announcer. The younger Eagle will be joined in the booth by Kirk Olsen of Fox Sports. The sideline reporters will be Jamie Erdahl and Sam Wyche both from the NFL Network.
The pregame show will originate from Pittsburgh and Los Angeles and begin at 11:00 a.m. (ET). The pregame show will feature former NFL players including; Drew Brees, Robert Griffin III, Manti Te’o as well as twin brothers Devin McCourty and Jason McCourty. Also, NFL analysts Mina Kimes, Laura Rutledge both of ESPN and Kay Adams of Up and Adams will provide commentary. Comedian Bert Kreischer will be a tailgate reporter with comedian Nate Bargatze offering “special guest commentary”.
According to Newsweek, since 1970 the NFL has scheduled 30 games on Christmas but the number of games on the holiday has quickened. This will be the fifth consecutive Christmas the NFL has scheduled at least one game. In 2022 and 2023 there had been three NFL games across three different networks. Last year when Christmas fell on a Monday, all three games (on CBS, Fox and ABC) averaged 27+ million viewers, all ranking among the 20 most watched telecasts of 2023.
In scheduling multiple games on Christmas, the NFL is continues to go head-to-head with the NBA. The NBA has been scheduling games on Christmas for decades. Last year, the NBA televised five games on Christmas airing on ABC and ESPN. The ratings were far below the NFL, with the top-rated matchup (L.A. Lakers-Boston) averaging 5.0 million viewers on ABC/ESPN. This Christmas the NBA will, once again, televise five games.
For Netflix this is a big step in live streaming NFL games. The NFL is, by a wide margin, the most popular sporting event. Last year, 93 of the 100 most watched telecasts were NFL games. On November 15, Netflix live streamed a well-publicized boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Netflix said the event had over 60 million households and 108 million global viewers, making it “the most streamed sports event ever.” During the match a number of subscribers ran into buffering issues while others encountered the livestream crashing. This has led some to question whether Netflix will be able to live stream the NFL games without a tech breakdown.
This was not the first time Netflix had a technical issue while streaming a live event. In March 2023, Netflix subscribers could not access a live reunion of the series Love Is Blind. The NFL say they are “incredibly confident” in Netflix’s ability to handle the traffic on Christmas Day.
Although this is the first live stream NFL game on Netflix, last year they streamed a documentary series The Quarterback and followed up earlier this year with The Receiver. Both series were critically acclaimed with strong viewership. On December 17, Netflix released a documentary Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, which chronicled the life of the quarterback.
While the NFL could be the biggest live stream sporting event on Netflix, it won’t be the first. In November 2023, Netflix live streamed the “Netflix Cup” a crossover golf event between F1 drivers and pro golfers. (Netflix has streamed Formula 1: Drive to Survive for the past six seasons.) Last March, Netflix live streamed the “Netflix Slam”, a tennis match between Carlos Alcarez and the since retired Rafael Nadal. Both live streaming events went on without any incident. In a ten-year $5 billion agreement Netflix, next month, will begin live streaming WWE Raw.
With 280 million subscribers across over 190 nations, Netflix provides the NFL with a large global audience. Netflix will make the games available worldwide and besides English will be streamed in French, Spanish, Portuguese and German.
The NFL first scheduled a regular season overseas in 2007 in London. With the exception of the pandemic, the league has been scheduling at least one international game every season. Through 2024 there have been 36 games held in London as well as other games held in Germany and Mexico City. This season Brazil hosted their first NFL game. Flag football will be an Olympic event for the 2028 Los Angeles games.
The Christmas doubleheader games will have ads. Netflix launched a less expensive ad supported tier in November 2022 which has become popular. In its most recent earnings report, Netflix noted over half of its new subscribers had opted for the ad supported tier. In November, Netflix had 70 million active monthly subscribers that receive ads, an increase from 40 million just six months prior.
Last June, Adweek reported Netflix would be selling five sponsorship packages for the two NFL games. The sponsorship packages include pre-game, post-game, halftime and two in-game opportunities. Each package will have a minimum of eight 30-second ads for each company. The sponsorship packages will cost in the neighborhood of $5 million.
In mid-November, Netflix announced they had sold out all commercial inventory for both games. Verizon will be the kick-off sponsor and FanDuel will be the exclusive sports book partner.
Last month, Netflix announced Nielsen would be measuring the audience of both Christmas games. Nielsen will use the same methodology Amazon uses for Thursday Night Football. Besides Netflix, the Kansas City-Pittsburgh game will air locally on stations KDKA (Pittsburgh) and KCTV (Kansas City). The second game will air locally on KHOU (Houston) and WJZ (Baltimore). All four stations are CBS affiliates. The game will also be available in the U.S. on mobile devices via NFL+.
Netflix will be the fourth SVOD provider to exclusively live stream regular season NFL games this year for their subscribers.
• During the opening weekend, Peacock had live streamed a Friday night game (Packers-Eagles) on September 6 from Brazil. The game averaged 14.2 million viewers, a 94% increase from last season’s exclusive game on Peacock (7.3 million viewers for Bills-Chargers on Dec. 23, 2023).
• On October 21 (week 7) ESPN+ live streamed a Monday Night Football game (Chargers-Cardinals which averaged only 1.8 million viewers. The game ran head-to-head with another Monday Night Football game on ABC/ESPN (Ravens-Buccaneers) which averaged over 16 million viewers.
• In their third season and with just two games remaining, Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video has been averaging 13.5 million viewers, a 12% increase over 2023 season-to-date average (12.1 million) last season. The viewing is 41% higher than 9.56 million averaged for the entire 2022 season. The average audience for Prime Video’s second Black Friday NFL game averaged 13.5 million viewers, an increase of 41% over last season. Amazon notes this season the median age for Thursday Night Football is 48.8, compared to 55.4 for NFL games on linear television.
Looking ahead, Prime Video will be exclusively streaming an NFL wild card game in January. There are reports Amazon is paying $120 million for the rights. (Peacock streamed it last January averaging 23 million viewers.) In addition, with a new contract, starting this October, Prime Video and Peacock will be exclusively streaming NBA regular season and postseason games for the next 11 seasons.
As the business model of regional sports networks crumbles, next year viewers can expect more local games to be streamed. For example, in 2025, Comcast is expected to launch an NBC Sports app on Peacock, allowing viewers to watch their four branded RSN’s (Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and northern California) on its streaming service. The monthly fee will be between $10-to-$15. Peacock has plans to be a distribution center for other RSN’s.
In 2025 Disney’s ESPN may finally launch its long anticipated direct-to-consumer streaming service. Disney has yet to announce a launch date or the subscription cost. The launch could spell the beginning of the end of cable television. Furthermore, Venu, a collaboration of streaming sports content from Disney (ESPN), Fox Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery, whose launch was delayed by an injunction last August, will be headed for a potential trial next October.
According to Nielsen, in November streaming with a viewing share of 41.6% continues to generate more viewers than either cable (25.0% share) or broadcast television (23.7% share). As live premium sports continue to migrate to streaming platforms, the share of viewers will only increase.
