05/16/24 12:17:00
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05/16 12:15 CDT Netflix will carry NFL games on Christmas Day for 3 years,
including 2 this upcoming season
Netflix will carry NFL games on Christmas Day for 3 years, including 2 this
upcoming season
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer
The NFL's Mike North wasn't considering Christmas Day as part of the 2024
regular-season schedule when preliminary planning began.
Ratings and interest from current and prospective broadcast partners changed
that.
Not only is the NFL playing on a Wednesday for only the third time since 1950,
it brought on Netflix to carry the games. Netflix will stream two Christmas Day
games globally as part of a three-year deal announced Wednesday as the league
unveiled the regular-season schedule.
"Last year at this time we weren't really thinking about Christmas Wednesdays.
But when you saw the viewership numbers that you saw for Christmas for the
tripleheader last year and the tripleheader the year before, the fans have
spoken. They want the games there and our broadcast partners want the games
there," North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning, said during a
teleconference Thursday.
Netflix will carry two games this year and at least one game in 2025 and ?26.
Defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City will face Pittsburgh in the first
game at 1 p.m. ET, followed by Baltimore at Houston at 4:30 p.m.
The NFL has played a total of 30 games on Christmas Day since 1971, including
three last year. It has stayed away from midweek games, though, until this
year's Christmas slate. Last year's three games averaged 28.68 million viewers.
The early afternoon contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City
Chiefs averaged 29.48 million.
This marks the fifth straight year of NFL games on Christmas, and they're
likely to remain on the schedule for a while. With Christmas falling on a
Thursday in 2025, Netflix and Amazon will have one game apiece. There are
expected to be at least two Christmas games in 2026, which is a Friday.
With the league continuing to make international inroads, including five games
abroad this season, the prospect of partnering with Netflix was too good to
pass up. Netflix has 270 million paid memberships in over 190 countries
"It is an opportunity for us to expose our game to more people around the
world, and that excites us a great deal," said Jeff Miller, the NFL's executive
vice president of communications, public affairs and policy.
Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media, said team owners
meeting in March were presented with a plan where teams playing on Christmas
Day would have their Week 16 games on Saturday, which would give them the same
amount of prep time they normally have in a short week when playing on Sunday
and Thursday.
The last time the league played on a Wednesday was Dec. 2, 2020, when the
Baltimore Ravens' game at the Pittsburgh Steelers was pushed back six days due
to COVID-19. The Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants opened the 2012 season on a
Wednesday due to President Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic
National Convention taking place on a Thursday.
The latest December regular-season game before this year was Dec. 9, 1925, when
the Providence Steam Roller hosted the Chicago Bears.
Netflix began airing NFL programming last year with the series "Quarterback." A
series on wide receivers will premiere this year. It also live streamed the Tom
Brady roast on May 5 and will have a 10-part documentary series later this year
on Jerry Jones and his ownership of the Dallas Cowboys.
Netflix's forays into carrying live sports began last year, but they were
exhibition events in golf and tennis. It is also scheduled to air the July 20
bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.
Who Netflix will use to announce and produce the holiday doubleheader remains
to be determined.
CBS Sports CEO and President David Berson welcomed Netflix even if it meant his
network doesn't have a game on Christmas Day.
"Their involvement in no way impacts our schedule and our deal. We have 29
windows, 10 doubleheaders and Thanksgiving. We have plenty of opportunities to
showcase (games) and drive massive viewership," Berson said. "We can't possibly
have all of the AFC games --- we know some will go to NBC, ESPN, Amazon and in
this case Netflix."
Even though there have been some criticisms about more games moving to
streaming, NFL fans have mostly stayed tuned in.
According to Nielsen figures, last season's 16-game "Thursday Night Football"
package on Prime Video averaged 11.86 million viewers, a 24% increase over
2023. Two games had more than 15 million viewers, including 15.3 million for
the Nov. 30 matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys.
The Jan. 13 AFC wild-card playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas
City Chiefs on Peacock averaged 23 million, a record for the most-watched event
on a streaming service. It also surpassed the audiences for the Saturday night
wild-card playoff games that were shown on NBC in two of the past three years.
In keeping with the NFL's longstanding policy on games that are carried on
cable or streaming platforms, Netflix's Christmas games will air on broadcast
TV in the competing teams' home cities and will be available on mobile devices
in the U.S. with NFL+.
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