As it turns out, more than just Americans were curious to check out live football games and a Beyoncé peformance on Netflix.
The streamer’s big “NFL Christmas Gameday Live” stunt drew a broadcast network-level audience in the U.S., and it prompted subscribers in more than 200 countries to check out some part of the nearly nine-hour telecast, which started with the Kansas City Chiefs at Pittsburgh Steelers followed by Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans. At the halftime of the latter game, Houston-born superstar Beyoncé performed a short set of tunes from her “Cowboy Carter” album. Viewership of that game peaked at 27 million viewers during her performed, which ran from roughly 6:05 p.m. ET to 6:20 p.m. ET. It was a heavily promoted appearance by Queen Bey designed to draw attention to the fact that the games were on Netflix — making its debut as a NFL live game partner — and to bring more casual viewers to the streamer’s big Christmas Day experience. Mariah Carey kicked off the first game with a rendition of her holiday staple, “All I Want for Christmas.”
Netflix cited Nielsen measurement showing that the Ravens-Texans game averaged 24.3 million viewers while the earlier Chiefs-Steelers bout brought in 24.1 million viewers. Those are more than respectable numbers for Netflix’s first outing and on the high end of what CBS, Fox, NBC or ESPN might garner with a highly anticipated NFL or college football game. Those numbers do not reflect the audience for the entirety of Netflix’s coverage, which began at 11 a.m. ET with a pregame show and ran through the post-game forensics on the Texans’ 31-2 pounding by the Ravens. And the reigning champ Chiefs made quick work of the Steelers with a 29-10 victory.
“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have delivered,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer. “We’re thankful for our partnership with the NFL, all of our wonderful on-air talent, and let’s please not forget the electrifying Beyoncé and the brilliant Mariah Carey.”
At the height of the Chiefs-Steelers game, one-third of Netflix’s global subscribers were watching the telecast, Netflix said. Netflix padded the day with a steady stream of trailers, teases and promotional videos in support of a wide range of upcoming series and movies, from Adam Sandler’s “Happy Gilmore 2” to “Squid Game,” which unleashed its long-awaited Season 2 on Dec. 26.
“We’re thrilled with our first Christmas Gameday on Netflix with NFL games being streamed to a global audience,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president of media distribution. “Fans in all 50 states and over 200 countries around the world watched some of the league’s brightest stars along with a dazzling performance by Beyoncé in a historic day for the NFL.”
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Beyoncé performs with her daughter, Blue Ivy, during the halftime show for the Christmas Day Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game carried live on Netflix (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
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It was a big Christmas Day for sports viewing all around. The NBA, which has long staked out Christmas Day as a prime regular-season game showcase, delivered its most-watched Dec. 25 in five years, the league reported. The five NBA games averaged 5.25 million viewers per game in the U.S. across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+. The biggest was the nail-biter that went down to the final second as LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers battled Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors (Lakers prevailed 115-113), which grabbed 7.8 million viewers, peaking in the final half-hour with 8.2 million. All told, NBA viewership for the day was up 84% compared to 2023, according to the league.
Lakers superstar James even made a crack in his post-game interview that Christmas Day game action belongs to the NBA. The NFL has played on Dec. 25 on and off since 1971 but 2024 marks the fourth consecutive year that the league has put a big spotlight on the day. As part of the NFL’s massive 10-year, $100 billion TV contract renewal deal set in March 2021, Netflix will lay out $150 million to carry Christmas Day NFL games for three years. The deal guaranteed the streamer two games in year one and at least one game for 2025 and 2026. The agreement is risky for the NFL given the chance for blowback from passionate football fans who don’t have access to Netflix. That sentiment was prevelant on social media during Wednesday’s daylong telecast. But Netflix made it through eight hours-plus of live game coverage as well as pre-and post-game shows without a major tech meltdown, which in and of itself is a victory for the streamer. The live game coverage was produced for Netflix by CBS Sports while the remaining wrap-around programming was produced by NFL Network. EverWonder Studio, a company backed by Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI, executive produced NFL Christmas Gameday.
Netflix is increasingly leaning into live sports and events as its overall business evolves and as sponsorship deals become a priority for the ad-supported tier. At the same time, Netflix offers the NFL easy, uniform access to high-end TV consumers around the world in one fell swoop. The league has invested significantly in recent years in efforts to make American football more popular in Europe, Latin America and other key territories, with a schedule of regular-season games played in such cities as London, Munich, Frankfurt, São Paulo, Mexico City and Toronto in recent years.
The global nature of Netflix’s platform and subscriber base makes it hard to compare the audience turnout on Wednesday to other NFL telecasts. Last year, NBCUniversal’s Peacock streamer grabbed about 10 million viewers with its exclusive Dec. 23 telecast of a Buffalo Bills-Los Angeles Chargers game, which aired on a Saturday night with less promotion than Netflix showered on its experiment.
(Pictured top: Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs speak with NFL Network reporter Stacey Dales on Dec. 25 after the Chiefs’ sealed a 29-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers)
