With CBS, ABC, ESPN, ESPN+, NBC, Peaco*ck, Fox, NFL Network, Prime Video and YouTube TV already in tow, and the potential of adding Netflix to the lineup, it could cost football fans upwards of $850 to access every 2024 NFL regular season game, according to SportsNaut estimates.
With monthly subscription costs for cable and streaming continuing to escalate, and the NFL planning to auction off selected games in the seasons ahead, it’s not unreasonable to think it could cost football fans $1,000 or more to watch NFL games on TV.
The NFL 2024 schedule is now set to be released on Wednesday, May 15, at 8 p.m. ET.
The schedule for Christmas will no doubt draw fans’ attention. With holiday falling on a Wednesday, the NFL initially announced it would not schedule any games for Dec. 25. The league reversed its decision and said there would be a doubleheader on Christmas Day. The NFL rarely schedules games on Wednesday; the last time it did was the opening week of the 2012 season to avoid a conflict with a national political convention.
The NFL however has traditionally scheduled games on Christmas. Since 2020, the league has televised at least one regular-season game on Christmas. Of the nine Christmas Day games since 2020, eight were on broadcast television and the ninth on was on the NFL Network, on cable.
Another question will be what media company will show the Christmas games. Puck’s John Ourand reported that Netflix
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Although Netflix has streamed several sports programs in the past, NFL games on Christmas would be a significant step up in the world of live streaming sports. Earlier this year, Netflix announced a 10-year, $5 billion agreement that will make it the exclusive home of WWE Raw in January 2025.
Also, on July 20, Netflix will livestream a boxing match between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and the social media personality-turned-fighter Jake Paul. The event will take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Earlier this month, Netflix live streamed a roast of seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady. The Netflix Slam, a tennis match between 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, was live streamed in March from Las Vegas. And The Netflix Cup golf event was a live streamed last November, when Formula 1 drivers and pro golfers faced off around the same as the Las Vegas Grand Prix race.
Netflix also streams a number of sports related programs, including Formula 1: Drive to Survive, now in its sixth season, and Under Pressure: The U.S. Women's World Cup Team, which was on last December.
This summer, Netflix, NFL Films, Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, and 2PM Productions will stream The Receiver, an eight-episode program about five NFL wide receivers. It follows, Quarterback, a similar program from last summer made by the same producers, which ranked among the streaming services most popular programs for several weeks.
In its first-quarter earnings report call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos noted that Netflix “is not anti-sports, but pro profitable growth.” Sarandos added, “And I think that’s the core of everything we do in all kinds of programming, including sports. So, our North Star is to grow engagement, revenue and profit.”
The NFL has expressed a growing interest in having its games exclusively live streamed. Last year, Google’s
As part of its new media rights agreement, the NFL can now auction off one of its six postseason wild-card games. The wild-card game last season went to Peaco*ck, which reportedly paid over $100 million for the exclusive rights. That game between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs averaged an audience of 23 million streamers.
Furthermore, Peaco*ck added nearly 3 million new subscribers, with 71% retaining their subscription after the game. At present, Peaco*ck has 34 million subscribers. This Summer, Peaco*ck will also live stream every event of the Paris Olympics.
Besides Thursday Night Football for the 2024 season, the NFL will be adding to its roster of exclusively live streamed games. On Friday of the opening week, Peaco*ck will live stream the first regular season game from South America between Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers in São Paulo, Brazil. It’s the NFL’s first scheduled Friday game in September since 1970.
Also, ESPN+ will exclusively live stream another international game in 2024. Prime Video will, once again, exclusively live stream a game on Black Friday. Prime Video will also exclusively live stream a wild card next January. There are reports Amazon paid $150 million for the rights.
Nonetheless, the NFL continues to be a ratings juggernaut. According to Nielsen, 93 of the 100 most watched telecasts in 2023 were regular and postseason NFL games.
Last season, with Christmas falling on a Monday, the NFL aired a triple header across three broadcast networks. The games averaged 28.7 million viewers, a 29% increase from 2022.
Moreover, all three games ranked among the 100 most watched telecasts of the year. For years, Christmas Day has been the domain of the NBA, which televised upwards of five marquee games on ABC and ESPN each year. Going head-to-head with an NFL triple header in December 2023, the NBA’s five nationally televised games averaged 2.85 million viewers, a 30% falloff from 2022.
Whereas a number of streaming providers have yet to be profitable or barely broken even, Netflix has been thriving. By cracking down on password sharing and launching an ad supported tier, in first quarter 2024 earnings report, revenue totaled $9.37 billion, up from last year’s $8.16 billion. Profits were about $2.3 billion, a year-over-year increase of about $1 billion. Furthermore, global subscribers increased by 9.33 million and numbered 269.6 million, blowing past Wall Street forecasts. The North American market tallied 83 million subscribers.