NFL on Netflix: What’s at stake for the league, the streamer, the fans and the NBA

Don’t lose that remote among all your crumpled wrapping paper and empty boxes on Christmas Day, because if you want to watch two big NFL games, you’ll have to call a new station. Netflix is ​​diving headlong into the live streaming sports business, broadcasting two NFL games on Christmas Day.

The NFL gifted Netflix two playoff games: Kansas City at Pittsburgh at 1:00 p.m. ET and Baltimore at Houston at 4:30 p.m. ET. A bevy of analysts and commentators will take part in the two-game spectacle. And because too much is never enough at Christmas time, the second game will feature a halftime performance from Beyoncé. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

The Christmas Day NFL duo marks Netflix’s biggest live-streaming venture yet – and the streaming service’s biggest gamble since it opted for streaming over DVD-by-mail. Here’s what’s at stake for everyone involved.

The NFL: Sorry Santa, Christmas now belongs to the Shield

The NFL has scheduled games on Christmas Day for the past five years. Since Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year, this presented a logistical challenge. Due to the tight turnaround time from the previous or following Sunday, there is a fairly short history of NFL games on Wednesdays. There was that one Steelers-Ravens game during COVID — let’s never talk about those days again — and a 2012 Cowboys-Giants season opener that sought to avoid a speech by President Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. Before that, you have to travel back to 1948 for a Wednesday game.

Not wanting to force any of its teams into an even shorter late-season turnaround, the NFL initially planned to end Christmas broadcasts in 2024. Then the league looked at the ratings for last year’s Christmas games – three games that averaged 28.68 million viewers, with the Raiders-Chiefs getting the highest viewership at 29.48 – and concluded that football was on a Wednesday is still possible.

Even bending the calendar to their indomitable will and hunger, the NFL simply scheduled the four Christmas Day teams for Saturday games in Week 16 and gave them the same amount of free time they would have for a Sunday-Thursday turnaround. Combine that with $150 million from Netflix to broadcast the two games, and we’re there.

Still, this shortened time frame means teams will play three games in 11 days, which Patrick Mahomes said was “not a good feeling.” But the game goes on, hopefully everyone will be intact at the end of Christmas Day.

For the NFL, the Netflix move is a gamble that only offers advantages. Netflix has 282.3 million subscribers in 190 countries. Each of them could theoretically watch this game as part of their normal subscription. That’s a tempting offer for a league that’s always eyeing its next potential conquest.

In the worst case scenario, the league continues with its existing partners. Best-case scenario, there’s a new streaming revenue stream in town for the league. And Beyoncé’s halftime spectacular around 6 p.m. ET could bring many non-football fans to the screen and turn Christmas Day into a second Super Bowl Sunday. As always, a win-win situation for the NFL.

Netflix: Does broadcasting work for everyone?

The streaming service, which is entirely focused on original content and A-list movie stars, is taking things to a much higher level with its NFL project. First and foremost, the question is whether everyone will be able to watch the games given the technical glitches that marred the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson “fight” that Netflix aired last month. As the AP notes, that matchup peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, while the largest audience ever for a streamed NFL game was last season’s Dolphins-Chiefs wild-card playoff game on Peacock, which drew 23 million viewers.

Netflix has insisted it will be ready for the onslaught of NFL fans – and later in the show, Beyoncé fans – but there’s certainly some nervousness at Netflix HQ right now.

Overall, the NFL games represent a major step forward for Netflix in its global entertainment ambitions. Netflix is ​​going full throttle on production, bringing in more than 20 names from the world of sports and entertainment to provide commentary before, during and after to deliver game.

The NFL’s appeal to Netflix is ​​obvious. Live sports is the last remaining real-time programming; No one records a game to watch days or weeks later like most of us do with TV shows. As the NFL distances itself from the more activist days of 2020 and 2021, it has become one of the few unifying forms of entertainment left in a polarized America. Netflix is ​​picking up on this trend and wants to capitalize on it.

Netflix has already broadcast some one-off live events, including golf, tennis and Paul/Tyson. Christmas Day marks the streamer’s first intended repeat business; Netflix could get Christmas games in the coming years and will begin airing WWE’s Monday Night Raw in January. Later, Netflix will broadcast the Women’s World Cup – a surprising broadcast coup and a sign that Amazon and Apple aren’t the only streaming-only services in town.

The Fans: Another new way to watch sports

It’s been several years since the big change in sports streaming, so watching NFL games on streaming-only platforms shouldn’t be much of a mental adjustment anymore. Yes, you have to track down that elusive remote and navigate your way to a new service, but it’s not much different than finding Thursday night Prime Video games or Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. The NFL has been training its fans to find their games on streaming services for several years, precisely for moments like this.

However, keep in mind that not everyone has a smart TV with Netflix already activated. More specifically, not everyone has Netflix. That’s obviously the streamer’s goal, to get more subscribers out of this whole endeavor, but for fans it may mean scrambling, figuring out a credit card, and frantically calling the kids or grandkids to get Netflix up and running on a Christmas Day bring to. The ratings for this endeavor will be an interesting gauge of how far fans are willing to go to pursue and pay for something that was once free and easy.

The Teams: Playoff implications in both games

Oh wait – there are real games to talk about! Almost forgotten. With a win in the early game, Kansas City can secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC, a bye in the opening round and home-field advantage in the conference playoffs. That’s motivation enough to overcome the fatigue of three games in eleven days. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, must stay ahead of Baltimore in its final two games to keep its AFC North championship hopes alive; both are currently 10-5.

Going into the later game, Houston has already secured a playoff spot, but can go one step further if the two AFC North teams struggle in the final two games. Baltimore’s road to the AFC North title begins with a win on Christmas. If both AFC North teams are 2-0 (or 0-2) in their last two games, Pittsburgh wins the tiebreaker, but if they are 1-1, things get much more complicated. Baltimore needs to stay undefeated and hope Pittsburgh loses one to have the best possible chance.

The NBA: Dethroned

If you imagine the NBA as Whoville, happily broadcasting its Christmas games for years, and the NFL as the Grinch swooping in to steal Christmas from the Whos, that’s pretty much it. The NFL’s Christmas attack couldn’t have come at a worse time for the NBA, which is at the end of the LeBron-Steph-KD era and the beginning of a new, uncertain era. Concerns about the league’s ratings may or may not be overblown, but there is no doubt that the NFL eclipses the NBA in popularity and will captivate many casual viewers on the NBA’s one-time holiday.

The guy just came back from a trip around the world; He deserves to watch football without boots, with his feet up and a glass of eggnog in his hand. Who will Santa Claus cheer for? Your favorite team, of course.