Netflix will be the exclusive host of this year’s Christmas Day NFL match-ups, the streaming giant confirmed on Wednesday morning, ahead of its Upfront presentation.
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With Christmas landing on a Wednesday this year, only two games will be played, whereas last Dec. 25 (a Monday) the league gifted fans with three. (The NFL will reveal those two holiday match-ups and its full 2024 schedule tonight at 8/7c.)
“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 of Media Distribution, said in a statement . “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.”
Netflix will also exclusively stream at least one Christmas Day game in both 2025 and 2026.
The news from Netflix comes four months after Peacock‘s exclusive presentation of an AFC Wild Card playoff game between the Chiefs and Dolphins proved that fans will follow games to streaming — that NFL contest delivered the most-streamed event ever in the U.S., with 23 million viewers. NBCUniversal reportedly shelled out around $110 million for exclusive rights to that Saturday-night Wild Card Weekend game, which marked the first time an NFL playoff game was a streaming exclusive.
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Explaining this year’s Christmas Day double-header, Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s EVP of media distribution, said in March, “When we saw the viewership from this past year, really our fans spoke. We certainly saw … that they are very much enjoying and wanting NFL football on Christmas. So what we’re going to do is play [some games] on Saturday of Week 16, and then come back and play a couple of games on Christmas Day on Wednesday.”
Christmas Day had typically been the domain of NBA games, the NFL didn’t play its first regular season game on Christmas until 1989 . But last year’s Christmas Day triple-header delivered historic ratings, with all three games ranking among the Top 5 Christmas Day NFL games on record
The Raiders’ upset of the Chiefs averaged 29.6 million viewers, making it the second most-watched Christmas Day game in NFL history; the Eagles’ win over the Giants averaged 29 million viewers; and the Ravens’ trouncing of the 49ers in primetime averaged 27.6 million.
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