Netflix is looking to host Sunday afternoon NFL games

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Despite underwhelming game quality, the NFL-Netflix Christmas Day doubleheader drew a record-breaking 65 million viewers for Netflix, making it their most-watched Christmas Day ever in the US. This success has prompted Netflix to express interest in bidding for NFL Sunday afternoon games, potentially as early as 2029 when existing deals with Fox and CBS could be terminated. This could significantly reshape NFL broadcasting, potentially displacing one of the current partners.

What do you think?
 
 
I didn’t my the games on Christmas … thought they did OK … my issue, is it seems like they are spreading the games out to more & more streaming services … I really don’t want to pay for all of them … local games should still be on local channels IMO
 
The ratings were high because the NFL is much more popular than the NBA even though the Xmas day has traditionally been a NBA only. FOr me personally I already having to many streaming services I don't watch (not enough time) so I'm not going to subscribe to another one just for a few games (Peacock for example).
 
JackEd said:
The ratings were high because the NFL is much more popular than the NBA even though the Xmas day has traditionally been a NBA only. FOr me personally I already having to many streaming services I don't watch (not enough time) so I'm not going to subscribe to another one just for a few games (Peacock for example).
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This is 4 years away as the earliest the NFL could terminate their National tv contracts is 2029. Over the next 4 years I could see the number of streaming options consolidate and who knows what cable will look like.
 
I’d rather viewing sports be as accessible as possible so I’d rather as much sporting events as possible be on ABC, CBS, NBC - your 5, 9 and 12 basic antenna available channels. For example, I did not love the CFB National Championship being on ESPN.

The NFL, NBA, etc. of course have no obligation to do that, but if I were Sports Czar, that would be my edict.
 
R
Orin Swift said:
I’d rather viewing sports be as accessible as possible so I’d rather as much sporting events as possible be on ABC, CBS, NBC - your 5, 9 and 12 basic antenna available channels. For example, I did not love the CFB National Championship being on ESPN.

The NFL, NBA, etc. of course have no obligation to do that, but if I were Sports Czar, that would be my edict.
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My streaming service dropped TNT … now I don’t get much of the NBA.
 
The NFL is about to kill the golden goose.

The two primary drivers for NFL viewership is that it's 'appointment viewing' at a consistently weekly start time. And the games were almost exclusive on over-the-air broadcast stations. Save for ESPN having SNF and then swapping it to MNF when NBC got back into the NFL broadcasts. But the local markets were still given those games on local over-the-air stations.

These games exclusive, nationally and locally, on a streaming platform are going to see subscription fatigue. Not everyone has every streaming service. And many aren't going to sign up for one month just to watch one particular game they're interested in. Especially if the plan is for season-long streaming on one platform. For instance, I don't have Netflix and haven't for quite some time. I'm not signing up for Netflix just to stream some NFL games. Even if it's the Browns game. I have alternate means of watching the game without having to pay a streaming service.

MLB ruined their fan base by late night games that put kids out of reach of seeing World Series and later just most regular season games. Tickets outpacing personal finances making more and more kids unable to access games. Then the rush to regional cable channels over local OTR stations further restricted baseball in the 90s and early 2000s when channels like WUAB could no longer host games.

NFL has resisted that rush to cable. Games are predominantly on when kids--future paying fans--are able to watch. Even the championship is at 6pm on the east coast and a big enough deal young fans are usually afforded the chance to stay up by parents. Basketball, namely NBA, benefited greatly for being accessible in the 90s and early 00s, but did the same thing MLB did. Put their games out of reach of future fans and now 20-30 years later we see NBA struggling just the same.

But at some point you go from cultivating future fans to squeezing your current fans for every dollar. At the expense of losing future fans.
 
Sykotyk said:
The NFL is about to kill the golden goose.

The two primary drivers for NFL viewership is that it's 'appointment viewing' at a consistently weekly start time. And the games were almost exclusive on over-the-air broadcast stations. Save for ESPN having SNF and then swapping it to MNF when NBC got back into the NFL broadcasts. But the local markets were still given those games on local over-the-air stations.

These games exclusive, nationally and locally, on a streaming platform are going to see subscription fatigue. Not everyone has every streaming service. And many aren't going to sign up for one month just to watch one particular game they're interested in. Especially if the plan is for season-long streaming on one platform. For instance, I don't have Netflix and haven't for quite some time. I'm not signing up for Netflix just to stream some NFL games. Even if it's the Browns game. I have alternate means of watching the game without having to pay a streaming service.

MLB ruined their fan base by late night games that put kids out of reach of seeing World Series and later just most regular season games. Tickets outpacing personal finances making more and more kids unable to access games. Then the rush to regional cable channels over local OTR stations further restricted baseball in the 90s and early 2000s when channels like WUAB could no longer host games.

NFL has resisted that rush to cable. Games are predominantly on when kids--future paying fans--are able to watch. Even the championship is at 6pm on the east coast and a big enough deal young fans are usually afforded the chance to stay up by parents. Basketball, namely NBA, benefited greatly for being accessible in the 90s and early 00s, but did the same thing MLB did. Put their games out of reach of future fans and now 20-30 years later we see NBA struggling just the same.

But at some point you go from cultivating future fans to squeezing your current fans for every dollar. At the expense of losing future fans.
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Maybe but people have been saying that for the last 10 years if not longer.
 
Sykotyk said:
The NFL is about to kill the golden goose.

The two primary drivers for NFL viewership is that it's 'appointment viewing' at a consistently weekly start time. And the games were almost exclusive on over-the-air broadcast stations. Save for ESPN having SNF and then swapping it to MNF when NBC got back into the NFL broadcasts. But the local markets were still given those games on local over-the-air stations.

These games exclusive, nationally and locally, on a streaming platform are going to see subscription fatigue. Not everyone has every streaming service. And many aren't going to sign up for one month just to watch one particular game they're interested in. Especially if the plan is for season-long streaming on one platform. For instance, I don't have Netflix and haven't for quite some time. I'm not signing up for Netflix just to stream some NFL games. Even if it's the Browns game. I have alternate means of watching the game without having to pay a streaming service.

MLB ruined their fan base by late night games that put kids out of reach of seeing World Series and later just most regular season games. Tickets outpacing personal finances making more and more kids unable to access games. Then the rush to regional cable channels over local OTR stations further restricted baseball in the 90s and early 2000s when channels like WUAB could no longer host games.

NFL has resisted that rush to cable. Games are predominantly on when kids--future paying fans--are able to watch. Even the championship is at 6pm on the east coast and a big enough deal young fans are usually afforded the chance to stay up by parents. Basketball, namely NBA, benefited greatly for being accessible in the 90s and early 00s, but did the same thing MLB did. Put their games out of reach of future fans and now 20-30 years later we see NBA struggling just the same.

But at some point you go from cultivating future fans to squeezing your current fans for every dollar. At the expense of losing future fans.
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Except that hasn't happened. The NFL has learned it can raise prices substantially every season and people will continue to pay. And it's the streaming services who pay big for rights to show the games. At that point the NFL makes the money no matter whether you get a subscription or not. Channels have found they get a of ton new subscribers around these games.
 
brianwr112 said:
Except that hasn't happened. The NFL has learned it can raise prices substantially every season and people will continue to pay. And it's the streaming services who pay big for rights to show the games. At that point the NFL makes the money no matter whether you get a subscription or not. Channels have found they get a of ton new subscribers around these games.
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Current fans pay. New fans aren't formed. Mlb found this out by squeezing the money from the wealthier older fans and pushing games out of reach out kids and finding out their fan base is aging quickly. Cultivating young fans isn't cheap. Or easy. But if you're only worried about tomorrow's revenue and not five years from now you're going to have a bad time in five years.
 
Sykotyk said:
Current fans pay. New fans aren't formed. Mlb found this out by squeezing the money from the wealthier older fans and pushing games out of reach out kids and finding out their fan base is aging quickly. Cultivating young fans isn't cheap. Or easy. But if you're only worried about tomorrow's revenue and not five years from now you're going to have a bad time in five years.
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There's 17 games a year meaning teams only host 8-9 games a year so tickets sell out. Even if people don't show up for the game...the tickets are paid for. Hundred thousand more show up just to tailgate. Viewership is up at every age group (both male and female). And kids are the singing up for fantasy teams with growing numbers every year. I think the NFL will be just fine. 600,000 people just attended the NFL Draft this weekend...to hear names read off a card
 
brianwr112 said:
There's 17 games a year meaning teams only host 8-9 games a year so tickets sell out. Even if people don't show up for the game...the tickets are paid for. Hundred thousand more show up just to tailgate. Viewership is up at every age group (both male and female). And kids are the singing up for fantasy teams with growing numbers every year. I think the NFL will be just fine. 600,000 people just attended the NFL Draft this weekend...to hear names read off a card
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This is a gross exaggeration. The most ever there was reported as 250,000. Most fans attending the draft also were there for the other days. Counting them again didn't make them "more people".

The fact it's free, with things to do, probably had a lot to do with it.

Notice how the NFL doesn't advertise the TV ratings for the Super Bowl any more and instead just reports viewership? It's cause it's less popular as a percentage of the country than before but rely on the fact that the US is growing year over year to advertise near annual increases in viewership.

More new people DON'T watch the Super Bowl than new people that do. And guess what, that's heavily skewed to the youth.
 
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