NFL to Auction Off Rights to 2024 Christmas Day Games; Who’s the Best Prospective Partner?

The No. 1 item on the NFL’s Christmas list this year is cash. A report from Front Office Sports indicates the league is planning to open bidding for its Christmas Day doubleheader, allowing CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC and Prime Video to have a crack at the games. This is a tried-and-true method of driving up the price of broadcast rights for the NFL, but which channel or streamer would be the best way to deliver these games to fans?

• Bidding is set to start at $50 million, and could reach as high as $100 million.
• The games are more likely to end up on a linear channel than a streaming service.
• ABC/ESPN, CBS or NBC make the most sense, because they provide broadcast and streaming options.

The NFL initially promised that unlike 2023, it would not offer any Christmas Day games in 2024, as the holiday falls on a Wednesday. It changed course earlier this week, however, deciding to air not one, but two games on a holiday that heretofore has been dominated by the NBA.

Reports indicate the league is set to open the bidding for its Christmas games at $50 million. That’s a big discount over the $100 million that Prime Video paid to get its hands on the first-ever Black Friday NFL game in 2023, and the $110 million Peacock shelled for an exclusive Wild Card game last year. Former ESPN executive John Kosner explained to FOS that while he expects the bidding to top out at between $75 and $100 million, the Christmas games probably won’t hit the expense level of a playoff game.

“The premium prices have come for exclusive streaming rights to NFL playoff games,” Kosner said. “NFL Christmas Day/night games have huge and growing audiences—but they are regular-season games scheduled seven months in advance. And traditionally the ad market for Christmas Day is not as robust.”

Each of the three NFL Christmas Day contests last year drew at least 27.1 million viewers, and reports indicate the league is likely to pick a broadcast partner rather than make the games streaming exclusives.

Which Partners Are Best for the NFL for Christmas Day Games?

In the end, the NFL will almost certainly pick whichever partner has the highest bid. The games are not likely to end up streaming exclusives, but if Prime Video blows league executives away with its offer, the NFL is clearly comfortable making games available exclusively via streaming. It did so twice last year, with a regular season game and the aforementioned playoff game airing only on Peacock for national audiences.

The wisest course of action for the NFL would seem to be picking one of its TV partners that has a streaming service which can air the games simultaneous with their linear broadcast, in order to boost its reach as much as possible and give fans the power of choice. That would narrow the field to ABC/ESPN/ESPN+, CBS/Paramount+, or NBC/Peacock.

But who can afford the extra expense? Disney and ESPN may be a little strapped for cash these days, as the House of Mouse is trying to come up with the money to launch two new sports streaming platforms. A standalone, fully fleshed-out ESPN streamer is underway from the company, and Disney has also joined with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery for a joint venture sports streaming platform that has a planned launch this fall. ESPN is on the hunt for minority investors, and has spoken with the NFL about becoming a strategic partner in the channel.

CBS might not be in the running for the games this year. Questions have already arisen as to whether the channel’s parent company Paramount Global will be able to come up with the $2 billion it owes for its package of Sunday afternoon NFL games this year, and the nearly-continuous merger and acquisition reports surrounding the company suggest it may have other cares than acquiring more expensive NFL inventory.

If the JV platform from Disney, Fox and WBD does launch this fall, that means the games will have a cable-free streaming option no matter which broadcast partner the NFL picks. Fox does not put any of its sports games on its on-demand streaming service Fox Nation, which is more of a conservative lifestyle and news service. However, the JV service will offer full livestreams of ABC, ESPN and Fox, so fans who don’t mind paying the $50 per month that streamer is likely to cost will find plenty of NFL games on it, potentially including this year’s Christmas Day doubleheader.

Amazon’s deep pockets suggest that it should not be considered out of the running for one of the games until the bidding closes. But the league would be best served picking a channel that has a streaming option available as well, in order to deliver the games to as many fans as possible and allow audiences to choose the right viewing method for them.