The NFL playoffs are headed to streaming.
As the league moves more regular season games to live streaming, the NFL and NBCUniversal announced Monday that Peacock will exclusively air the first ever live-streamed playoff game during the wild-card round.
‘We are excited to work with a great partner in Peacock to present the first-ever exclusively live streamed NFL playoff game this upcoming season,’ Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president and chief operating officer of NFL Media, said in a statement. ‘Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining wide reach for our games continues to be a key priority for the League, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to Peacock’s streaming platform is the next step in that strategy.’
When will the NFL playoff game on Peacock take place?
The Peacock exclusive playoff game will be a prime time wild card playoff game, set to take place on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. The game will follow a late afternoon wild card playoff game on NBC.
NFL’s push toward live streams
The playoff game announcement comes as the NFL has put more of its games exclusively on live streaming services. The streaming era began last year, when Amazon’s Prime Video became the exclusive streaming service for ‘Thursday Night Football.’
Streaming expanded for the 2023 regular season, as Amazon’s Prime Video will host the NFL’s first Black Friday game, scheduled for Nov. 24 between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins. The game will be free to stream.
Peacock will also air its first exclusive NFL game during the regular season, as it will air the Week 16 matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday, Dec. 23. Peacock streams all ‘Sunday Night Football’ games broadcast on NBC.
‘As Peacock continues to grow, nothing says ‘must-have’ programming more than live NFL games. With the regular-season schedule revealed last week and today’s announcement, we can’t wait for the 2023 season to kick off,’ said NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua.
