The Peacock streaming platform will exclusively broadcast one of the NFL playoff games. The network's parent company, NBCUniversal, has signed, as The Wall Street Journal has learned
The Wall Street Journal
a $110 million deal to broadcast several games during the 2023-2024 season.
Among the company's benefits is that it will be the only company to broadcast three American Football League playoffs during the same weekend. It will be in mid-January, specifically on January 13, when the platform will broadcast this match, which will be titled Peacock Wild Card. An opportunity that NBC Sports President Pete Bevacqua spoke about during the company's advertiser event (known as Upfronts):
We are thrilled to partner with the NFL on this industry milestone, bringing the first NFL playoff game broadcast exclusively live to Peacock. As Peacock continues to grow, nothing says 'must-have' programming more than live NFL games. With the regular season schedule unveiled last week and today's announcement, we can't wait for the 2023 season to begin.
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The same sentiment was shared by Hans Schroeder. The NFL executive vice president and chief operating officer of NFL Media said they were "excited" to be able to collaborate with a media outlet like Peacock:
We are excited to work with a great partner in Peacock to present the first NFL playoff game broadcast exclusively live this upcoming season. Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining a broad reach for our games remains a key priority for the League, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to the Peacock streaming platform is the next step in that strategy.
The executive is also aware that this decision will not please many sports fans, who will have to subscribe to the platform in order to watch the game, but believes that making this decision "will be transformational for sports in digital format.
So much so that Schroeder does not rule out that the NFL may decide to continue with this new trend and make one of the playoff games available only via streaming. While this is not yet certain, it remains to be seen if the 2024 telecast is a success before the NFL and NBCUniversal renew the deal for 2025.
