Netflix is interested in bidding on the NFL’s Sunday afternoon games in a Hail Mary move that could disrupt the future of cable TV, according to a report.
Bela Bajaria, chief content officer of Netflix, told Puck in a podcast interview that the streaming giant will bid on Sunday afternoon games.
CBS and Fox are currently the homes of Sunday afternoon football games. NBC hosts Sunday night games, Amazon hosts Thursday night games, and ABC/ESPN hosts Monday night games.
These current broadcast deals are up in 2033, but the NFL can end the deal four years early in 2029, making Netflix a potential player, according to NBC Sports.
Fox and CBS have been hanging onto their slices of football coverage since the 1990s. Fox acquired the National Football Conference package from CBS in 1994, while CBS acquired the American Football Conference package from NBC in 1998, NBC Sports reported.
The FOX and CBS deals each currently create about $2 billion in annual revenue for the NFL, according to reports. The NFL’s total revenue in a year is about $20 billion.
Losing the NFL could have a devastating impact on the current television set-up. The league is a major eyeball creator and advertiser driver for networks, so the loss would be huge on a network’s bottom line. It could also lead to more people “cutting the cord” and ditch cable TV in favor of just streaming platforms.
Netflix boasts a global audience, which could give the NFL a chance to expand its reach. The streaming service hosted the NFL’s Christmas Day games, drawing 65 million viewers from 218 countries, the company said based on Nielsen data.
Getting games could be huge for the streaming service, as the NFL made up 72 of the top 100 most-watched broadcasts of 2024, Sportico reported. Even the contentious election coverage didn’t really make a dent. The top two broadcasts were the Super Bowl, which welcomed 123 million viewers, followed by the second presidential debate, which welcomed 67 million.
Nielsen data from 2024 obtained by Variety perhaps illustrates the magnitude of the draw of airing football coverage. CBS, which hosted last year’s Super Bowl, topped the charts as the most-watched network of 2024. NBC, ABC and Fox trailed.
