On Monday, the next step in watching the NFL postseason took on a new advancement for the upcoming 2023 season via NBCUniversal.
Peacock will officially be the home of the first-ever live-streamed postseason game — becoming the first streaming service to air a playoff game. The announcement was made official by the league and NBC and set Jan. 13, 2024, as the debut.
NBCUniversal, Peacock Make History With NFL
This move becomes the next major step for streaming services.
Amazon Prime jumped on the opportunity to broadcast the NFL by claiming the Thursday Night Football lineup in 2022. It led to NFL fans turning to subscriptions to watch their teams play while also opening the door for streaming services to capitalize on diving into the NFL’s growing popularity across the world.
Now, the Peacock exclusive Wild Card matchup will immediately follow a late afternoon Wild Card contest on NBC and Peacock. Chairman of NBC Sports Pete Bevacqua said this move was in the “must-have” programming category for the streaming service.
“We are thrilled to partner with the NFL on this industry milestone, bringing to Peacock the first ever exclusively live-streamed NFL Playoff game,” Bevacqua said in a news release. “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.”
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Meanwhile, the NFL shared its own excitement about going on this new technological path.
“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,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NFL Media. “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.”
Furthermore, NBC now becomes the first major media company to present three postseason games during the same weekend. The network already airs an NFC and AFC Wild Card matchup but will now air one more contest during the league’s Super Wild Card Weekend.
Peacock To Air Two More Games
Peacock isn’t just settling on the postseason to air an NFL game, though.
The service is also going to join Amazon in airing its own games during the season — though in a special doubleheader.
Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills will head to Inglewood to visit Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers in a prime-time matchup of 2022 AFC playoff teams at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 23, inside SoFi Stadium.
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That’s not all, as the service will additionally broadcast a regular-season game immediately before as AFC North rivals the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers will be aired at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
Peacock will also air every Sunday Night Football game alongside local NBC outlets during the regular season as well as the “Football Night in America” pregame show.