Netflix and the National Football League (NFL) are entering into a partnership, letting the streaming platform 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 on the holiday: the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans. They won’t air at the same time, meaning you can tune into both. According to the NFL, the Chiefs/Steelers game kicks off at 1 p.m. EST, while the Ravens/Texans game starts at 4:30 p.m. EST.
The streaming network plans to broadcast “at least one game” on Christmas Day 2025 and 2026. However, judging from the wording, it appears Netflix is open to hosting more games in the coming years. Nothing is set in stone at the moment, though, as perhaps both sides want to see if viewers are interested in this type of content before committing to more.
This deal could be a pretty lucrative one for the service as it might 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. A Christmas Day event seemed to be the best fit. And what better to draw in eyes than an NFL game, “which accounts for the majority of the most-watched live TV broadcasts in the country every year.” The publication paid a lot for the deal, as insider sources told Bloomberg that Netflix gave the NFL a little under “$150 million per game”.
Experimenting with content
These past eight months or so have seen Netflix go through an experimental phase, trying out new forms of content to bring in more people. Back in November 2023, the company livestreamed the Netflix Cup, which was a live pro-am golf tournament that pitted Formula 1 drivers against professional PGA players. It was, by all accounts, a flop, but it proved that the service was willing to try new things. Then, we saw the brand try out tennis matches with the Netflix Slam to greater 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 won’t happen until next year, so it’ll be a while.
Still, the platform’s near future is shaping up to be an interesting one. Perhaps all this new content was the reason why Netflix had to hike prices multiple times in the past year or so. Whether or not it’ll be enough to draw in a new audience remains to be seen.
If you’re looking for something to watch, check out TechRadar’s roundup of the 47 best Netflix shows for May.