It sounds like the old guards at CBS and FOX might have some competition for Sunday afternoon NFL games.
Netflix continues to think big in their approach to breaking into sports content. According to several reports, the streaming giant has their sights set on bidding on the rights to regular season Sunday afternoon games.
CBS and FOX have owned the rights to NFC and AFC games since the 1990s. While the current broadcast deal runs through 2033, the NFL has an option to get out of those contracts four years early, which would be 2029, and they likely will.
Understanding that money talks in these sorts of negotiations, Netflix could shock the sports broadcasting landscape and outbid the traditional cable TV networks to get games exclusively on Netflix.
We’ve already seen them have success with this, as the NFL’s Christmas Day games streamed exclusively on Netflix. The next three seasons worth of Christmas Day games will also stream on Netflix, setting them up perfectly to enter negotiations with the NFL to obtain the rights to more broadcasts than just holiday specials.
Of course, the boomer generation of NFL fans will be outraged at even the possibility of this. Taking the NFL regular season broadcasts off of cable would have felt sacrilegious just one decade ago, but again, money talks.
Commissioner Roger Goodell works for the owners; you probably know that. His main objective is to make them plenty of money. Accepting a big paycheck from Netflix might upset a few older fans and, consequently, a few Best Buy workers who have to explain the value of a smart TV or, god forbid, a Roku streaming device.
But if Netflix comes forward with an offer that the league could not refuse, it would make the owners more money, make the salary cap increase, get the players higher salaries and ultimately continue to grow the game.
During their first Christmas Day broadcast, Netflix corrected their wrongdoings from the downright debacle that was the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, where high traffic slowed the platform to a halt, and hardly anyone was able to tune in.
We know the NFL is not going anywhere any time soon. It seems like Netflix isn’t either. Give it four years, and teaming up might just be the best for the growth of the game, even if it might upset some senior citizens along the way.
