NFL’s Netflix debut on Christmas Day kicked off without a glitch

By James On Dec 25, 2024

Netflix’s NFL debut kicked off without a hitch on Christmas Day.

Mariah Carey opened Wednesday’s doubleheader with a taped performance of All I Want for Christmas is You before Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs faced Russell Wilson, TJ Watt and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Houston Texans will host the Baltimore Ravens in the second game as the NFL presents four of the AFC’s top five teams.

Netflix agreed in May to a three-year contract to broadcast games on Christmas Day. The streaming giant is expecting one of its biggest days since the site launched in 1998.

Netflix’s 282.3 million subscribers in more than 190 countries will be able to stream the games, marking the first time one outlet has distributed an NFL game globally. Netflix has the games available in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German.

Netflix had trouble streaming the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on November 14. The fight peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers reported issues with dropouts or streaming in the lead-up to and during the fight.

There were no signs of trouble early in Wednesday’s game after a few blunders during the pregame show. The broadcast started with about 10 seconds of silence as it appeared studio host Kay Adams’ microphone was not turned on.

The biggest test should come at halftime of the Ravens-Texans game, when Beyoncé performs live at NRG Stadium.

According to NFL Media, viewers in all 50 states tuned in within minutes of the pregame show going live, and viewers from nearly 200 countries watched the lead-up to kickoff.

The NFL will play its first games on Wednesday since the Steelers and Ravens had to play on December 2, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The only other time the league has played on a Wednesday since 1948 was in 2012, when the Giants and Cowboys met in the season opener.