If you don't have a Netflix account, you might want to put one on your Christmas list this year, because the streaming company will be airing two of the biggest games of the NFL season.
The NFL and Netflix announced on Wednesday that the NFL's two Christmas games will be exclusively shown on Netflix this year. The streaming company signed a three-year deal with the NFL that will include Netflix also getting at least one Christmas game in both 2025 and 2026.
The announcement between the NFL and Netflix came at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, just 10 hours before the expected release of the 2024 NFL schedule. The teams playing in the 2024 Christmas games will be revealed with the rest of the schedule at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday
Although CBS, Fox and ABC all got to air a Christmas game last season, the NFL decided to change its plans for 2024. Back in March, the NFL decided to put the Christmas games up for bid this year, which is how Netflix was able to score the rights.
Even though Netflix is a new partner for the NFL, it shouldn't be a total surprise that it landed the Christmas games. The NFL has been thrilled with the massive reach that the league's streaming partners have brought to the league, especially with younger audiences. When Roger Goodell was asked about the topic last month, the NFL commissioner specifically mentioned Google's handling of Sunday Ticket and Amazon's impressive ratings for the company's Thursday night package in 2023.
"In each of those platforms, our average age of our audience went down eight to 10 years," the NFL commissioner said at the draft. "So that's where a lot of people are that we need to reach, and that's why we're investing in it."
Netflix has been stepping up its NFL content over the past year. Not only did the streaming company air the "Quarterback" series in 2023 -- a show that followed Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota -- but the company also just got done streaming the live roast of Tom Brady.
Now that Netflix has the two Christmas games, that means you'll need quite a few subscriptions if you want to watch every NFL game in 2024. Netflix will be one of four streamers that will exclusively carry at least one game next season. Here's a look at the three others:
- Peacock: Packers vs. Eagles in Brazil in Week 1
- ESPN+: One game
- Amazon: Thursday night schedule, plus one wild-card playoff game
The negotiations with Netflix went down to the wire, which is a big reason why the release of the schedule was delayed. NFL teams were expecting the schedule to be revealed May 9, but instead, the league postponed the schedule release until May 15.
