NFL Playoffs Live: A look at ‘The Peacock Bowl’
Published 1:15 pm Friday, January 12, 2024
- Peacock streamed the NFL playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins.
The first-ever NFL playoff game on Peacock
The NFL playoffs start on Saturday, Jan. 13, and the primetime match-up may have a lot of fireworks — and it’s not because of the match-up on the field.
The AFC Wild Card playoff game between the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins will be airing on Peacock, making it the first NFL playoff game to ever air exclusively on a streaming service.
It’s a massive bet for Peacock and parent company Comcast (CMCSA) – Get Free Report, which also owns NBC. The company reportedly paid $110 million just to air this playoff game.
But Amazon has already laid the blueprint for how to make streaming work for the NFL. Prime Video has aired “Thursday Night Football” and garnered nearly 12 million average viewers per game this season despite being behind a paywall, and there haven’t been any glaring issues with the service.
Amazon also declared that it had its largest number of sign-ups over a three-hour period when it aired its first-ever regular season game in 2022.
Peacock already had its first run at airing an exclusive NFL game on Dec. 23. That game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers averaged 7.3 million viewers, significantly lower than the viewership of NFL regular season games across all other broadcast partners.
But this is an NFL playoff game. America tunes in to NFL playoff games.
Last year’s Wild Card games, which aired on linear channels, averaged 28.4 million viewers. This game also has the storyline to attract viewers as it features the superstar duo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and the return of their former running mate in wide receiver Tyreek Hill to Arrowhead Stadium for the first time since he helped them win a Super Bowl in 2020.
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There has been a lot of frustration on social media about the need to sign up for Peacock to watch the game, but whether fans actually bite the bullet remains to be seen. Will Peacock be able to attract a mass number of sign-ups? How will the network’s broadcast fare versus linear broadcasts?
Saturday night will be the barometer.
Anyone who wishes to sign-up for Peacock can do so here for as low as $5.99 for a month.
Stay tuned to this page. This article will be updated all weekend and especially during the game, so check back often.
