Netflix Goes Big Game Shopping, Gets NFL Three-Year Xmas Day Deal

By Barry Janoff

May 15, 2024: The streaming service that brought you The Roast of Tom Brady will now be part of the day when there are chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

The NFL today said it has signed a three-year deal with Netflix to air games on Christmas Day, beginning with two games in December 2024 and also including at least one game during the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

The Dec. 25 games — this year on a rare Wednesday for the league — will be the Kansas City Chiefs at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans.

These games will air on broadcast TV in the competing team cities and also will be available on U.S. mobile devices with NFL+.

Financial terms of the pact were not shared. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Netflix will pay $75 million per game this season.

“We couldn't be more excited to be the first professional sports league to partner with Netflix to bring live games to fans around the world," Hans Schroeder, NFL evp-media distribution, said via the league.

“The NFL on Christmas has become a tradition and to partner with Netflix, a service whose biggest day of the year is typically this holiday, is the perfect combination to grow this event globally for NFL fans."

The NFL first broadcast Xmas Day games in 1971, on a semi-regular basis in 1989 and annually since 2020.

Last season, the NFL’s three Christmas games ranked among the Top 25 most viewed TV programs of 2023, with the Las Vegas Raiders-Chiefs game drawing the highest Christmas Day viewership (average 29.6 million) since 1988, according to the league.

Also that day, the New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles averaged 29 million viewers, and theRavens-San Francisco 49ers averaged 27.6 million.

“When we saw the viewership from this past year, really our fans spoke,” Schroeder said during the Annual League Meeting in March. “We certainly saw and believe that they are very much enjoying and wanting NFL football on Christmas.

“So what we're going to do is we're going to play a couple of games, like we've typically played for well over a decade, probably more than that, on Saturday of Week 16, and then come back and play a couple of games on Christmas Day on Wednesday."

Netflix previously worked with the NFL, NFL Films, 2PM Productions and Omaha Productions on the docuseries Quarterback last year (which focused on Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota) and this summer is scheduled to air Receiver (following five of the NFL's top pass catchers through their 2023 season on and off the field).

Netflix also said today it would work with Skydance Sports and NFL Films, in association with Stardust Frames Productions, on a ten-episode documentary series that “tells the definitive story of Jerry Jones and his unique journey in transforming the Dallas Cowboys into the most valuable sports franchise in the world.”

The alliance comes as Netflix is ramping up its sports portfolio, which also includes Nascar: Full Speed, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, The Netflix Slam exhibition match this past March between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, The Netflix Cup pitting F1 drivers vs. PGA Tour golfers in a golf tournament, two series focusing on MLB’s Boston Red Sox — one following the team over the course of the 2024 season, the other about the 2004 season that saw the team’s first World Series championship in 86 years — America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (premiering this summer) and the upcoming bout between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul (July 20 in AT&T Stadium, Arlington).

This past January, Netflix signed a deal to become the new exclusive home of WWE’s Monday Night Raw beginning in 2025 — valued at $5 billion over ten years, according to industry analysts — in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Latin America, among other territories.

Netflix will also become the home for all WWE shows and specials outside the U.S. as available, inclusive of Raw and WWE’s other weekly shows — SmackDown and NXT — as well as the company’s Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble.  

“Last year, we decided to take a big bet on live — tapping into massive fandoms across comedy, reality TV, sports and more," Bela Bajaria, Netflix chief content officer, said via the entertainment service. “There are no live annual events, sports or otherwise, that compare with the audiences NFL football attracts.

“We're so excited that the NFL's Christmas Day games will be only on Netflix."
 
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