Netflix promises NFL Christmas Day games will stream perfectly fine despite no evidence

As the NFL enters the modern digital era, football games are becoming increasingly more common on streaming platforms.

The NFL signed a deal to begin streaming Thursday Night Football games exclusively on Amazon Prime in 2022. NBCUniversal received exclusive rights to stream a playoff game on the Peacock service in January. The league even took its Sunday Ticket services to YouTube after disputes with DirecTV.

Now, the NFL is partnering with a streaming giant to challenge the NBA for holiday sporting traditions on Christmas. During the offseason, the league agreed to a three-year deal with Netflix that grants exclusive streaming rights to two games on Christmas Day. 

Netflix has essentially maxed out on subscriptions in the United States, but their recent venture into broadcasting live events has provided new opportunities for growth. Although viewers have dropped traditional cable subscription in exchange for streaming platforms, live sporting events have continued to draw large audiences and generate significant ad revenue. 

Netflix reassured NFL after concerns about Christmas Day streams

Still, Netflix is relatively new to streaming live events, and early testing with live events hasn’t gone as hoped. Netflix experienced significant issues while streaming the boxing spectacle between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, which was the first live sports event on Netflix.

The buffering issues during the fight “raised some eyebrows around the league,” ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported. The league office reached out to Netflix to address concerns about the platform’s ability to handle NFL viewership.

The explanation offered to the league was that the “unprecedented scale of broadcasting a live sporting event” contributed to the challenges, per Graziano. The fight between Paul and Tyson peaked at 65 million concurrent viewers. Netflix reported that 50 million households watched the co-main event between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

The NFL reportedly felt reassured that Netflix had figured out what went wrong and that the issues wouldn’t be a problem for the two primetime matchups allotted to the streaming service for Christmas Day.

The NFL’s debut on Netflix will showcase the Baltimore Ravens against the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs against the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

Both games could see significant increases in traffic due to two non-football-related figures. The Chiefs will draw the usual audience that tunes in for sightings of pop icon Taylor Swift, but Houston is attempting to offset that advantage. The Texans announced that 32-time Grammy Award-winning singer Beyoncé will perform during halftime at NRG Stadium on Christmas Day.

The boxing event wasn’t the first live broadcast on Netflix to experience issues. Netflix unsuccessfully attempted to live stream a special episode of “Love is Blind.” Fans of the reality dating show experienced technical issues due to a bug introduced by Netflix, per Vanity Fair. 

Hopefully, the next experience will be smoother for Taylor Swift fans, Beyoncé fans and football fans alike.