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The NFL is taking another big step in streaming by putting one of its playoff games exclusively on a digital platform for the first time.
The league and NBCUniversal announced Monday that Saturday night’s game will be on Peacock during wild-card weekend.
The Peacock exclusive game will begin on January 13 at 8:15 or 8:30 pm ET. The game will be televised on NBC stations in both teams’ markets. It is also available on mobile devices through the NFL+ package. This is preceded by an afternoon playoff game on NBC and Peacock beginning at 4:30 pm ET.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however The Wall Street Journal reported that the one-year deal will see the league receive approximately $110 million.
“Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining widespread access to our games continues to be a top priority for the league, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to Mile’s streaming platform is the next step in that strategy,” said Hance. Schroder, NFL executive vice president and chief operating officer of NFL Media.
The league has dabbled in streaming games for nearly a decade, but has gone all-out in the past two seasons. Amazon Prime Video became the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football” last season, while ESPN has one international game per season on ESPN+ starting in 2021.
Under the NFL’s 11-year deal with NBCUniversal, which began this season, the Peacocks have an exclusive regular-season game. It will be Dec. 23 when the Buffalo Bills face the Los Angeles Chargers. Cincinnati Bengals vs. The Pittsburgh Steelers matchup will precede that.
“We’ve spent a lot of time with the NFL and had constructive meetings about its exact position [Peacock] game,” NBC Sports president Pete Bevacqua said last week when the regular-season schedule was released. “We think it’s a great combination of leveraging NBC’s strengths with that afternoon game and driving viewers to Peacock. regular season exclusive game.”
NBC will have three games in the first weekend of the postseason, marking the first time a network has had multiple games in one playoff weekend.
NBC has the prime-time Sunday game on Jan. 14, while Fox and CBS will have earlier contests. ESPN’s Monday Night Game wraps up opening weekend on Jan. 15. This is the third straight year the NFL has played wild card games over three days.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
