Netflix and the National Football League (NFL) are entering into a partnership that will allow the streaming platform to air live games on Christmas Day 2024, 2025 and 2026. It’s all part of a new “three-season deal” between the two companies.
In December, the service will offer two football games during the holiday: the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans. They don’t air at the same time, meaning you can tune into both. According to the NFL, the Chiefs/Steelers game will start at 1:00 PM EST, while the Ravens/Texans game will start at 4:30 PM EST.
The streaming network plans to air “at least one game” on Christmas Day 2025 and 2026. However, judging by the wording, it looks like Netflix is open to hosting more games in the coming years. However, nothing is set in stone at this point, as both parties may want to see if viewers are interested in this type of content before committing to more.
This deal could be quite lucrative for the service as this could be the start of Netflix fully embracing live content. In a recent report, Bloomberg states that executives at the platform were looking for ways to bring in millions of viewers at once. An event on Christmas Day seemed to be the best fit. And what better way to grab attention than an NFL game, “which accounts for the majority of the most-watched live TV broadcasts in the country each year.” The publication paid top dollar for the deal, as insider sources told Bloomberg that Netflix gave the NFL just under “$150 million per game.”
Experimenting with content
Over the past eight months, Netflix has been going through an experimental phase, trying out new forms of content to bring in more people. In November 2023, the company live-streamed the Netflix Cup, a live pro-am golf tournament that pitted Formula 1 drivers against professional PGA players. It was in every way a failure, but it proved that the agency was willing to try new things. Then we saw the brand trying out tennis matches with the Netflix slam to more success.
We’ve also seen video games being implemented, and in the not-too-distant future, wrestling fans will get to see WWE’s Raw on Netflix. However, wrestling content That won’t happen until next year, so it will take some time.
Still, the near future of the platform will be interesting. Maybe all this new content was why Netflix had to do that increase prices several times in the past year or so. Whether it will be enough to attract a new audience remains to be seen.
If you’re looking for something to watch, check out Ny Breaking’s roundup of the 47 best Netflix shows for May.