The NFL and its partners continue to push the envelope. The league started exclusively streaming Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video last season, and this season will now bring the first exclusive live-streamed NFL postseason game. NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock will stream an NFL Wild Card Playoff game on Saturday, January 13 at 4:30 PM ET.
The announcement reads in part:
“We are thrilled to partner with the NFL on this industry milestone, bringing to Peacock the first ever exclusively live streamed NFL Playoff game,” said Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports. “With America’s No. 1 primetime show for a record 12 consecutive years, the terrific regular season SNF schedule revealed last week, and today’s announcement, we can’t wait for the 2023 season to kick off.”
“We are excited to work with a great partner in Peacock to present the first-ever exclusively live streamed NFL playoff game this upcoming season,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NFL Media. “Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining wide reach for our games continues to be a key priority for the League, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to Peacock’s streaming platform is the next step in that strategy.”
“As Peacock continues to grow, nothing says ‘must-have’ programming more than live NFL games,” said Kelly Campbell, President, Peacock and Direct to Consumer, NBCUniversal. “With the first-ever exclusive live streamed NFL Playoff game and our first exclusive regular season game, plus the entire season of Sunday Night Football and Football Night in America, and the Peacock Sunday Night Football Final postgame show, fans can stream the best of the NFL on Peacock all season long.”
With the two Saturday NFL Wild Card games and a Sunday primetime NFL Wild Card game (on NBC and Peacock), NBCUniversal will be the first media company to present three NFL Playoff games in a single weekend (January 2024).
According to the Wall Street Journal, NBC is paying a whopping $110 million for just the one streaming-exclusive playoff game.
For context, Apple is paying $250 million annually for exclusive rights to more than 1,000 MLS games.
But Peacock will pay $110 million for one NFL game (or 4 hours of live content).
That’s why the NFL is king in the US.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) May 15, 2023
It’s now funny looking back to a couple of weeks ago when NBCUniversal’s Xfinity had NFL Network blacked out for a few hours due to a disagreement on terms.
We’ll see how fans respond to this news, as obviously people are not used to needing a streaming service to watch an NFL postseason game—they’ve traditionally been available for free via over-the-air broadcasts.
Peacock will also have the first non-Thursday exclusively streamed game when the Chargers face the Bills at 8:00 PM ET on Saturday, December 23 (Week 16).
The 2023 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, September 7 on NBC.