Netflix inks a 3-year deal with the NFL to show football games

Netflix has inked a three-year deal to show certain NFL games. Two will stream this Christmas.

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Netflix announced a three-season deal with the NFL.The streamer will show two NFL games on Christmas this year.There’s a simple reason Netflix now wants to get into live sports programming.

No more wondering if Netflix is going to show real live sports: The streamer now has a three-season deal with the most popular sports league in America — the NFL.

Netflix will show two NFL games on Christmas Day this year, plus “at least one” game on Christmas in 2025 and 2026, the company and the NFL announced Wednesday.

The deal will cost Netflix “less than $150 million per game,” Bloomberg reports.

As we’ve discussed before, the logic for Netflix is simple here: While Netflix spent years insisting it didn’t want to be in live sports, that was before it had an ad business, and live sports — particularly the NFL — are considered the best way to aggregate an audience of ad-watchers. Not coincidentally, Netflix is making its pitch to advertisers Wednesday in New York as part of the annual “upfront” pitch cycle.

And if you don’t care about Netflix’s ad sales and only care about watching NFL games, this simply means you need to have yet another network to watch games this fall. The league, which has become expert at getting multiple media companies to pay it for games, already had deals with CBS, Fox, NBC, Disney/ESPN, and Amazon. Add another to the list.