NFL Executive Explains How Peacock, Prime Video Secured Streaming-Exclusive Games in 2024

The NFL knows full well that its immediate future is still primarily on linear TV. Ninety-three of the top 100-rated television programs of 2023 were NFL games, and record-setting ratings from Super Bowl LVIII gave the league all the ammunition it needed to prove to doubters that traditional television is still the best way to offer fans games. But the league is still determined to build its relationships with streaming partners like Peacock and Prime Video, and the league’s EVP of media distribution Hans Schroeder spoke with Ad Week recently about how the league views streaming as a medium.

• Schoeder suggested that rising ratings for “Thursday Night Football” games on Prime Video made the league feel comfortable offering it a Wild Card game.
• The average streaming audience for NFL games is eight years younger than linear audiences on average.
• The Black Friday game first played on Prime Video in 2023 could be a league staple moving forward.

The NFL will follow its opening game of the 2024 NFL season with a Friday night game in São Paulo, Brazil on Sept. 6, which will be exclusively available on Peacock for American audiences. Schroeder indicated that the league wanted to continue improving its relationship with Peacock after the streamer managed to draw 23 million viewers to its exclusive Wild Card broadcast in January.

“We finished last season in the playoffs with Peacock,” Schroeder told Ad Week. “To open this season, open Week 1 off a Thursday night game on NBC and have them be able to promote to their Peacock platform to Friday night seemed like a great way to start the season and continue to build a key partner and platform in Peacock and NBC in a really appropriate way.”

He also shared that the Peacock-exclusive Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins was the youngest on average for a playoff game in the past 10 years and that it drew more female viewers than any Wild Card or Divisional round game in NFL history. All in all, games on streaming platforms draw audiences who are an average of eight years younger than linear NFL viewers. That data confirms a September 2023 survey by Deloitte, which showed that while 30% of all viewers had streamed a sports event on a subscription video-on-demand platform, the number jumped to 46% among millennials.

Is Prime Video’s Black Friday Game to Be a Permanent Fixture on the NFL Schedule?

Schroeder also touted Prime Video and the relationship between that platform and the league. He pointed out that ratings for “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video were continuing to climb, and said that it had the “ability to earn a Wild Card game” in its contract, implying that ratings played a part in whether Prime Video would be allowed to offer a playoff game. Last season, “TNF” games averaged 11.86 million viewers each, a jump of 24% over 2022.

“That’s getting very close to where we were a couple of years ago when the games were on Fox and NFL Network,” Schroeder said. “It’s above the World Series. It’s above the NBA Finals, and so you look at those data points.”

Indeed, Amazon was initially offered the Wild Card game between the Chiefs and Dolphins that ultimately went to Peacock last year, so the NFL must have been satisfied with the ratings jump from year one to year two. Prime Video has been confirmed as the host of an NFL Wild Card game following the 2024-25 season.

But what about Black Friday? The 2023 season also saw the league play a game on the day after Thanksgiving for the first time in its history, and Prime Video was host to that game as well. The streamer made the game free to all viewers regardless of Prime membership, and Schroeder’s words make it clear that the NFL wants to become a staple of Black Friday viewing going forward.

“We played on Black Friday, and I think we really liked that. It’s the first time doing that, and we would expect to continue to play then,” Schroeder said. “We think it’s going to be another key part of Thanksgiving weekend, and we’re excited about how we can build that with Amazon going forward.”

The NFL will not be leaving broadcast TV any time soon, but it will make meaningful attempts to raise its profile among streaming users as well. Schroeder says that his mandate is to continue being creative in finding ways to distribute games across multiple platforms, and mediums.

“We’re going to continue to always be very cognizant, looking at all the data, all the information we have in front of us,” he promised. “Commissioner Roger Goodell pushes us all the time. We’ve got to continue to innovate. We’ve got to continue to evolve in everything we do, and you’ll see that in our media strategy and how we continue to evolve the distribution of our games.”