After being a fixture of the holiday season on cable television, the NFL has cut a deal with Netflix to stream Christmas Day games.
The NFL had previously put a plan in place for the upcoming season where two new games would be broadcast live on Christmas Day. This also marks one of the first times that Netflix has acquired the rights to live access to one of the biggest names in American sports.
Netflix media correspondent Bela Bajaria stressed the importance of getting the rights to use the footage for the games, saying, “There are no live annual events, sports or otherwise, that compare with the audiences NFL football attracts. We’re so excited that the NFL’s Christmas Day games will be only on Netflix”.
For the past few years, Netflix’s sports-themed content has mostly been relegated to various documentaries. Outside of the major series on basketball like The Last Dance, some of the highest-rated sports content has come from various documentary series, along with one-off events like the upcoming fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.
NFL’s vice president of media, Hans Schroeder, was also proud to partner with Netflix for the holiday season, saying, “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.”
This move also comes as the result of the NFL expanding their horizons across as many streaming platforms as they can. Aside from the NFL Redzone on cable and the NFL+ mobile app, the sports league has also been working with Prime Video for Thursday Night Football as well as YouTube to stream various Sunday games.
Given the massive amount of people watching during the holiday season, this falls in line with co-CEO Ted Sarandos’s comments about driving as much engagement as possible. As of yet, there has been no word on whether Netflix is authorised to stream any other games for the upcoming season, but the kick-off game is set for September 5th, with The Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Baltimore Ravens.
