Football fans, it is time to adjust your Christmas Day plans. On Wednesday, it was confirmed that Netflix will broadcast its first two NFL games this December as part of a three-year deal that will see the streamer air at least one game every season through 2026. In the broader scope of NFL broadcasting rights, this is a tiny segment of the overall schedule, but when the most popular domestic sports league partners with the traditionally sports-averse world’s largest streamer, it is almost certainly going to be a win-win situation for all involved.

Key Details:

• The deal allows Netflix to get into the NFL broadcasting game without committing billions of dollars to rights.
• Despite it being for just Christmas Day games, the NFL now has a broadcasting relationship with the world’s largest streamer.
• If the league decides to cancel its current rights deals early, Netflix’s involvement would likely drive prices up even more than normal.

Neither the NFL nor Netflix disclosed the full terms of the deal, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the streaming giant will pay $75 million per game this season. That is less than the reported $110 million that Peacock ponied up for its streaming-exclusive Wild Card playoff game last season, but still a sizeable sum for an individual game. The NFL carved out this additional mini-package after previously stating that it would not play games on the holiday, which traditionally was dominated by NBA basketball broadcasts.

However, by reconsidering, the NFL has not only scored itself an additional $150 million in rights fees but has also begun a broadcasting relationship with the largest streaming service on the planet.

This move appears to fit perfectly with the needs of both the NFL and Netflix. Over the years, the streamer’s executives have routinely said that the company does not want to get into the financially costly game of bidding for major sports rights. Instead, their live sports efforts have been targeted on the types of events that they can produce and own themselves, like The Netflix Cup that brought together Formula One drivers and PGA Tour golfers from the streamer’s sports docuseries “Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing” last fall.

Similarly, in July, the streamer will air a night of boxing featuring fighter and content creator Jake Paul — the star of its special “Untold: Jake Paul the Problem Child” — and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who has not had a sanctioned professional fight in two decades. Netflix had previously discussed even purchasing fledgling sports leagues in order to completely build out an entire streaming and storytelling apparatus around it.

While that has not yet come to fruition, a deal to only broadcast NFL games on Christmas Day feels like the next logical step for Netflix. Even if the streamer is paying the reported $150 million for the two 2024 games, that is nowhere near the level of spending that all of the league’s other media partners are committing, allowing Netflix to play in the NFL sandbox without having to dedicate its entire budget to doing so. By focusing exclusively (for now) on Christmas games, Netflix will own one small segment of the NFL schedule that it can build around moving forward.

Considering that Netflix already streams the NFL docuseries “Quarterback,” and this summer will add “Receiver” to its lineup, finally cementing its relationship with the NFL via a rights deal felt inevitable, even if this announcement is likely coming sooner than many had anticipated. Since the streaming giant appears to be uniquely interested in live sports rights that complement its other programming, this move shouldn’t be much of a shock.

From the league’s perspective, being able to add another deep-pocketed broadcast partner — even if it is just for one or two games per season — has positive, long-term implications. The NFL’s current media rights deals run through 2033, but the league has the right to cancel them ahead of the 2030 season, which would allow them to reopen the bidding process for its entire slate of rights.

Assuming that Netflix continues bidding on these breakaway packages — be they Christmas Day games or anything else — there will be six seasons of data for the streamer to evaluate before potentially opening up its wallet to acquire a larger portion of the league’s offerings. Then, if they determine that the investment was beneficial in terms of attracting new subscribers or retaining existing ones, we could see the streaming giant begin to elbow out traditional media entities for rights.

Netflix’s entry into the larger NFL bidding war will undoubtedly result in increased revenue for the league. With Amazon — via Prime Video — and Google — via YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket — already partnering with the NFL, the league has methodically expanded its reach beyond the traditional media companies. While broadcast and cable networks still deliver a substantive business, there is no denying that they are rapidly declining in terms of reach and budget as the pay-TV model is continually disintegrating. By bringing another extremely wealthy tech company into the distribution mix, the NFL is maximizing its chances of substantially increasing its rights fees.

Short of also adding Apple TV+ to its cadre of broadcast partners, we here at The Streamable feel like this is possibly the best possible outcome for the league. Whether or not this is ideal for football fans is yet to be determined, but given that Netflix reportedly has 82.66 million customers in the United States and Canada, chances are good that no matter what friends and family you are celebrating the holidays with will have a subscription to watch the games.

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Netflix is a leading subscription-based video streaming service that offers on-demand access to an extensive library of over 3,000 movies, 2,000+ TV shows, and a growing collection of acclaimed Netflix originals. Renowned for producing groundbreaking content, Netflix has become a cultural powerhouse with hit originals like “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday,” “Squid Game,” “The Crown,” “Tiger King,” “Bridgerton,” “The Witcher,” and “Black Mirror.”

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Recently, Netflix has expanded beyond standard movies and TV titles with the addition of video podcasts, and is also exploring a digital store that would offer third-party streamers within the app.

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