The NFL made history this weekend with Saturday night’s game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs becoming the most-streamed event in history. The game was exclusively on NBC’s Peacock, a subscription service that starts at $5.99 per month.
Andrew Fillipponi and Danny Parkins of the Audacy original podcast “1st & Pod” discussed the event and whether its success will lead to more playoff games behind a paywall in the future.
“Mike Tirico called it a momentous achievement in broadcasting or a historic achievement in broadcasting, the most-streamed event ever. Chiefs - Dolphins,” Parkins said (42:13 in player above). “They’re claiming north of 20 million people watched Chiefs and Dolphins. How was your Peacock experience?”
“I watched it, had no problem with it,” Fillipponi said. “I thought the number would be lower because the game in the second half was not competitive. It was a blowout.”
Tyreek Hill’s return to Arrowhead in the playoffs didn’t go too well for the Dolphins. He did score a 53-yard touchdown in the second quarter to make it a 10-7 game, but those were the only seven points that Miami put on the board in the 26-7 loss.
Despite the Chiefs controlling things and putting the game away, viewers still tuned in as Patrick Mahomes led Kansas City to another playoff victory.
“If 23 million people actually watched that thing, just get used to it,” Parkins continued. “We’ll have two streaming playoff games. Amazon will get a streaming game.”
“I disagree with that,” Fillipponi interjected. “Because I think with the anti-trust deal that they’ve got with the government, I think the more games they put behind a paywall or put on a subscription-based thing, they’re going to invite grandstanding politicians to stick their nose in and get involved in this and I don’t think the NFL wants that. I think they feel like they can get away with one. I honestly don’t think they can get away with two.”
“I don’t know. Listen, they have lobbyists,” Parkins said. “Whatever the line is they will take it right up to it.”
“This is it,” Fillipponi concluded. “Putting a playoff game on a subscription-based thing I think is the line.”
The NFL has been wading deeper into the streaming waters over the years. Amazon acquired non-exclusive streaming rights to 10 games in the 2017 season and it’s only gone up from there. This season, Amazon had 15 Thursday night games, three more than in prior seasons.
Amazon also streamed the first-ever Black Friday NFL game this season, but their games have largely been available for free. We’ll see if Peacock’s success will lead to more streaming playoff games in the future.