Netflix and the National Football League (NFL) have teamed up to allow the streaming platform to broadcast live games on Christmas Day in 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 against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens against the Houston Texans. They won't air at the same time, meaning you can tune in to both. According to the NFL, the Chiefs/Steelers game begins at 1 pm EST, while the Ravens/Texans game begins at 4:30 pm EST.
The streaming network plans to air “at least one game” on Christmas Day in 2025 and 2026. However, judging by the wording, it seems like Netflix is open to hosting more games in the coming years. However, nothing is set in stone at the moment, as perhaps both parties 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 it could be the start of Netflix fully embracing live content. In a recent report, Bloomberg claims that the platform's executives were looking for ways to attract millions of viewers at once. A Christmas Day event seemed like the best option. And what better to attract attention than an NFL game, “which represents the majority of the most watched live television broadcasts in the country each year.” The publication paid top dollar for the deal, as inside sources told Bloomberg that Netflix gave the NFL a little less than “$150 million per game.”
Experimenting with content
Over the past eight months or so, Netflix has gone through an experimental phase, testing new forms of content to attract more people. In November 2023, the company live-streamed the Netflix Cup, which was a live professional golf tournament pitting Formula 1 drivers against PGA professional players. By all indications, it was a failure, but it showed that the service was willing to try new things. Then we saw the brand test tennis matches with Netflix Slam with greater success.
We have also seen the implementation of video games and, in the not too distant future, wrestling fans will be able to watch WWE's Raw on Netflix. However, the wrestling content won't appear until next year, so it will be a while.
Still, the near future of the platform is shaping up to be interesting. Maybe all this new content was the reason Netflix had to raise prices several times in the last year or so. Whether or not it will be enough to attract 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 of May.
