- Netflix didn’t crash when it streamed two NFL games on Christmas.
- Even better for the NFL and Netflix: Streaming-only games got a slightly smaller audience than a televised game.
- Live sports streaming was once a novelty. No more.
Netflix passed two tests on Wednesday when it NFL football games broadcast live for the first time in its history.
First: Netflix managed to distribute the games worldwide without a large distribution technical errors that plagued his Mike Tyson-Jake Paul boxing exhibition/stunt last month.
Second: Netflix has managed to attract the type of audience for games that one expects from the NFL, which is continually the most popular thing on conventional television.
The NFL and the streamer say Wednesday’s two games — the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans — averaged about 24 million viewers in the United States. This is a record for the broadcast of NFL games in the country. (Those initial numbers could increase a bit once the NFL, Netflix and Nielsen seek additional viewers.)
The largest audience – about 27 million viewers – showed up for the “Beyoncé Bowl” – a halftime performance of the Ravens/Texans game, featuring, of course, Beyoncé.
For comparison, last year the NFL attracted an average of some 28 million American viewers for the two matches it broadcast on Christmas Day, via conventional television networks. (Netflix’s figures do not include viewers outside the United States; it says it will report on December 31. Netflix said the public for Tyson/Paul Event peaked at 65 million worldwide and 38 million in the United States.)
All of this means that when Netflix streams Christmas Games again next year, and then again in 2027, it won’t seem like anything new. It will simply be the most popular sport on television, broadcast via a streaming service.
That’s what Netflix and the NFL want, for slightly different reasons. The NFL is still looking for another outlet that will pay top dollar for the right to broadcast its games – Netflix paid the NFL $150 million for this year’s games – and Netflix wants high-profile live events as a way to boost its burgeoning advertising business.
Win-win. That’s what the NFL has discovered every time it sells streaming rights to digital players over the years, including Yahoo, Twitter, Amazon and Google.
While we’re here, a few other notes:
- Although there has been some discussion about Netflix tries to make its NFL coverage uniqueI couldn’t discern anything significantly different between the games and others I’ve watched this year. Again, that’s the point: the NFL wants the product to look the same no matter where you see it. (And if there is a desire for something different on the part of fans, I have yet to discern it.)
- Netflix streaming NFL games for the first time is big for the NFL, Netflix and people who are interested in the media industry. But in my 100% unscientific poll of real-world people, no one knew that Netflix owned the games. And when they found out, they didn’t care, which makes sense: neither game was particularly important or suspenseful. But for Netflix and the NFL, that wasn’t the point.