Breaking: Netflix to Broadcast Two NFL Games on Christmas Day This Season in Groundbreaking Three-Year Deal
The NFL now has broadcast deals with three of the largest tech companies in the world and all four major domestic broadcast networks.
After speculation had been percolating over the past week, on Wednesday morning, it is now official that Netflix will officially enter the NFL broadcasting business this season. Ahead of thefull 2024 season schedule release on Wednesday night, the NFL and Netflix both announced that the world’s largest streamer has signed a three-year deal to broadcast Christmas Day games in 2024, 2025, and 2026. This season, that means that the streamer will host two contests on Wednesday, Dec. 25.
Key Details
- The NFL deal is the largest investment in live sports rights in Netflix’s history.
- The move marks the latest effort for the world’s largest streamer to expand its live programming offerings.
- The four teams participating in the pair of games will be announced on Wednesday night.
While the participants in this year’s Christmas Day games will not be announced until the schedule release special on Wednesday evening, it was confirmed that Netflix will be broadcasting a pair of games in 2024 and will have at least one game in each of the subsequent years. No financial details have been officially released for the deal, but individual playoff games have commanded up to $110 million in recent seasons, especially as the NFL looks to diversify its broadcast partnerships, raising the bids across the board. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Netflix will pay $150 million for the two games in 2024.
While Netflix has previously aired one-off sporting events featuring stars of its sports docuseries, the Christmas Day NFL games will be its first true embrace of major sports broadcasting. The following month, the streamer will become the weekly home of the WWE’s “Monday Night Raw,” which it will own the domestic broadcasting rights for until 2035.
“Last year, we decided to take a big bet on live — tapping into massive fandoms across comedy, reality TV, sports and more,” Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria said. “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.”
From the NFL’s side, the league has been attempting to spread out its rights across as many different partners as possible, in order to not only reach as many viewers as it can, but also in an effort to cultivate as many media entities as possible willing to bid up every round of media rights. The NFL is now partnered with Amazon, Google, and Netflix — three of the largest tech companies in the world — as well as ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, all four of the major broadcast channels in the United States.
The league’s dominance of the ever-evolving world of television and broadcasting remains unchallenged.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be the first professional sports league to partner with Netflix to bring live games to fans around the world,” NFL EVP for media distribution Hans Schroedersaid. “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.”
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.