The Super Bowl on Netflix? That's probably not happening anytime soon, at least according to one NFL executive.
Mike North, the vice president of broadcast planning for the NFL, said he doesn't foresee America's largest annual sporting event completely abandoning television for a while, but that doesn't mean the NFL isn't rapidly adopting streaming in its broadcast plans. The NFL, after all, recently announced it will broadcast games on Christmas Day this year on Netflix, which has been pushing hard for more live programming as of late.
“Are we going to continue to gravitate towards streaming? We are, that’s where the consumers are,” North said on the Adam Schefter Podcast. “Maybe we’re too old, but our kids know and that’s where they ingest their content, that’s where they interact with the National Football League. I don’t think we’re ever going to get to a point where all the games are being streamed or the Super Bowl is on a streaming service. That’s probably not in our lifetimes. But yeah, one-offs here and there, keeping the interest level high for the fans, using these assets for these media partners to continue to build their business.”
North also indicated that the NFL broadcasting more games on streaming — the NFL aired one playoff game this year exclusively on Peacock and plans to exclusively air a Week 1 game in Brazil on NBC's streaming service as well — is just a natural progression for the league.
“It isn’t just recent. It goes back 5 or 10 years with the OTT (over-the-top) games that Yahoo and Verizon each did way back when,” North said. “We've been on Amazon as part of that tri-cast model on Thursday night for a decade. The Peacock here and there, the ESPN+ here and there, obviously Netflix coming in for Christmas, that’s probably going to continue. I don’t know to what extent. What are we 85 to 90% of our games are still free over-the-air television? And obviously, every game in the home market's free over-the-air television, I don’t think that’s going to change that much.”
Streaming-exclusive NFL games in 2024 season
The NFL is changing and growing. The league appears to be more popular than ever, dwarfing all of the other North American sports leagues in viewership and relevance. What comes with increased interest is expansion, which is precisely what the NFL is attempting to do with its ever-changing streaming policy.
While it is objectively good that the league plans to keep most of its games on television, there are going to be some obvious complaints about streaming-exclusive games. This past season, the NFL broadcast the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Miami Dolphins exclusively on Peacock, an unpopular decision but one that netted 23 million viewers and made it the most-streamed NFL game of all time.
The playoff game seemed more like an experiment than anything considering the league already adopted a streaming-only game of the week with Amazon Prime Video being the broadcast partner for “Thursday Night Football.” While many of the TNF games were snoozers, the league and Amazon seem pleased with the partnership, and it will expand a little bit this season.
As one of the marquee streaming-only games, Prime Video, like Peacock last season, will be the exclusive home of one Wild Card playoff game in January 2025. Here are all of the known streaming-only games for the 2024 NFL season:
- Sept. 6: Green Bay Packers vs. Philadelphia Eagles – Peacock (in São Paulo, Brazil)
- Sept. 12: Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins – Prime Video
- Sept. 19: New England Patriots vs. New York Jets – Prime Video
- Sept. 26: Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants – Prime Video
- Oct. 3: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Atlanta Falcons – Prime Video
- Oct. 10: San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks – Prime Video
- Oct. 17: Denver Broncos vs. New Orleans Saints – Prime Video
- Oct. 24: Minnesota Vikings vs. Los Angeles Rams – Prime Video
- Oct. 31: Houston Texans vs. New York Jets – Prime Video
- Nov. 7: Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens – Prime Video
- Nov. 14: Washington Commanders vs. Philadelphia Eagles – Prime Video
- Nov. 21: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cleveland Browns – Prime Video
- Nov. 29: Las Vegas Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs – Prime Video
- Dec. 5: Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions – Prime Video
- Dec. 12: Los Angeles Rams vs. San Francisco 49ers – Prime Video
- Dec. 19: Cleveland Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals – Prime Video
- Dec. 25: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers – Netflix
- Dec. 25: Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans – Prime Video
- Dec. 26: Seattle Seahawks vs. Chicago Bears – Prime Video
- Wild Card playoff game – Prime Video
The NFL season is set to kick off on Thursday, Sept. 5 with the Baltimore Ravens vs. Kansas City Chiefs on NBC.
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