After agreeing on a deal with the NFL, streaming giant Netflix is set to solidify its position as a significant player in the live sports broadcasting market.
The agreement will see Netflix live-stream NFL matches worldwide on its platform for the next three seasons.
The forthcoming 2024 season includes the two Christmas Day games, the Pittsburgh Steelers against reigning Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans against the Baltimore Ravens.
The following two seasons that succeed the next will grant Netflix the right to show at least one-holiday game in those campaigns.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Toonkel, the NFL will fork out roughly $75 million to show each Christmas Day game in the upcoming season.
Netflix VP Spencer Wang compared the expense of an individual NFL game to the amount one medium-sized original Netflix movie would cost.
This latest move by the NFL represents the league’s recent desire to make Christmas Day a new dedicated holiday for live games.
Previously, the NFL would only schedule games on Christmas Day if the holiday fell over the weekend, and matches typically get played on days.
Thanksgiving was usually the NFL’s only holiday spot in the season, but the NFL has been keen to grow on that.
The NBA held the tradition of playing matches on Christmas Day, but the NFL has been willing to compete with them since 2020.
From being America’s most prominent sports league, the NFL appears determined to use its advantages and dominate television ratings and the sports news cycle over Christmas.
Netflix CCO Bela Bajaria is confident the three-season deal will succeed and draw plenty of viewers to the streamer.
She said: “There are no live annual events, sports or otherwise, that compare with the audiences NFL football attracts.”
NFL Executive VP of Media Distribution, Hans Schroeder, believes the agreement will benefit all parties, commenting: “The NFL on Christmas has become a tradition, and to partner with Netflix, a service whose biggest day of the year is typically this holiday, is the perfect combination to grow this event globally for NFL fans.”
The NFL has collaborated with Netflix previously through the Quarterback docuseries, which followed three of the league’s quarterbacks, including three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, with behind-the-scenes access across the 2022 campaign. A similar series titled Receiver will premiere on the platform later this year.
This is not the first time the NFL has partnered with a streamer to show matches, as Amazon Prime Video exclusively has a deal to show Thursday night games during the regular season.
Also, last season’s AFC Wildcard contest between the Chiefs and Miami Dolphins was the first-ever streaming-exclusive playoff game, as it could only be viewed on Peacock.
Netflix broadcasting America’s most popular sports league on its platform adds to its recent venture into live sports broadcasting.
The streamer has tapped into tennis and golf with one-off events like The Netflix Slam and The Netflix Cup.
This July, Netflix will broadcast exclusive coverage of the highly talked about boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson in Arlington, Texas.
Additionally, Netflix will soon cater to professional wrestling fans, as a deal was recently announced to bring WWE Raw exclusively to the platform from January 2025.
This is a massive coup for Netflix, as the current edition brings in nearly 20 million weekly viewers in the United States.