PEACOCK ACQUIRES EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO SUPER WILD CARD GAME & BILLS @ CHARGERS GAME
The NFL announced this week that the NBC streaming service, Peacock, will have an exclusive playoff game during the 2023 season in the Wild Card round, making it the first time in league history that a playoff game will be exclusively available on a streaming platform.
Peacock will be the home for the first-ever exclusive live streamed NFL playoff game, presenting a matchup in primetime on Super Wild Card weekend at 8:15 pm ET on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. The game will follow a late afternoon, 4:30 pm NFL Wild Card Playoff game available on both Peacock and NBC.
“We are thrilled to partner with the NFL on this industry milestone, bringing to Peacock the first ever exclusively live streamed NFL Playoff game,” said Chairman, NBC Sports, Pete Bevacqua. “As Peacock continues to grow, nothing says ‘must-have’ programming more than live NFL games. With the regular-season schedule revealed last week and today’s announcement, we can’t wait for the 2023 season to kick off.”
The platform will also receive an exclusive game in Week 16 when the Buffalo Bills take on the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Dec. 23, 2023, 8pm ET. The December Saturday night matchup is only the fifth-ever Saturday night game for the LA Chargers in franchise history and will be the second faceoff between Pro Bowl quarterbacks Josh Allen and Justin Herbert.
The game will immediately follow a special 4:30 pm ET SNF Saturday afternoon game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, also on NBC and Peacock.
Both Peacock exclusive Wild Card game and regular season game will be broadcast on NBC Stations in the two competing team cities, and will also be available on mobile devices with NFL+. In addition to the two games, Peacock will once again stream all NBC Sunday Night Football games, including the playoffs, and the Football Night in America studio show. The service will also bring back the exclusive Peacock Sunday Night Football Final with expanded post game coverage following SNF each week.
NFL Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NFL Media, Hans Schroeder said on Monday, “We had our first season with Amazon [this past year] and I think that with the digital platforms, we’re ready for live sports at scale. And the next step is to step into the postseason. We like the plan that Peacock and NBC put together. In this case knowing we’re going to have a bigger audience and focused on having the wildest reach possible across each platform.”
The NFL made Amazon Prime Video the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football for the next decade, last season and has given ESPN+ one international game per season since 2021. The league has doubled down on streaming services in the past few years, and is now the only sports league in the world that has signed multi-billion dollar deals with more than one streaming platform.
“We are excited to work with a great partner in Peacock to present the first-ever exclusively live streamed NFL playoff game this upcoming season,” said Schroeder. “Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining wide reach for our games continues to be a key priority for the league, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to Peacock’s streaming platform is the next step in that strategy.”
As per the Wall Street Journal, Peacock paid a massive fee in the range of $110 million on a one-year deal with the NFL to receive the exclusive postseason rights. By comparison, Apple TV only pays $250 million on an annual basis for exclusive rights to all MLS regular season and Leagues Cup matches, which amounts to more than 1,000 soccer games.
For the first time in league history, the NFL will broadcast games this season on an impressive ten platforms including CBS, FOX, NBCM ESPN, ABC, Amazon Prime Video, NFL Network, ESPN Plus, and YouTube TV.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
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