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Saturday’s AFC Wild Card recreation between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Miami Dolphins wasn’t the primary streaming unique for Peacock, however it was actually the most important.
NBCUniversal and Comcast say the sport was the most-streamed live event ever in the U.S., with a complete viewers of 27.6 million viewers, per Nielsen. That’s simply shy of the viewership of the Browns-Texans AFC Wild Card recreation, which aired on broadcast tv, capturing 29 million viewers.
It additionally set an total web report, with the community saying 30% of all web site visitors throughout the recreation was being consumed by Peacock, greater than any on-line occasion in historical past.
These are feats value bragging about, actually, however they didn’t come with out controversy.
All the situations had been proper for this to be must-see TV for NFL followers. Kansas Metropolis, final yr’s Tremendous Bowl champions, had been liable to being eradicated from this season’s playoffs. The sport was being performed within the harshest of situations, with wind chill temperatures of -27. And Taylor Swift was in attendance, which all the time brings a viewership increase from her military of followers.
So when some folks realized that to look at the sport, they’d need to subscribe to Peacock (at a fee of $6 per thirty days), some tempers started to flare.
The furor even reached New York congressman Pat Ryan, who wrote “It’s a shame. Followers already face exorbitant costs to look at each recreation throughout the common season; they don’t should be squeezed even additional by grasping firms. This bait-and-switch is especially egregious for customers who already pay for NBC as a part of their cable package deal. … Congress granted the NFL an antitrust exemption in its broadcast offers with the expectation that you simply wouldn’t use it to screw over followers. That was clearly a mistake.”
Ryan’s phrases didn’t persuade the league to air the sport nationally through broadcast tv, nonetheless. (As for the bait-and-switch accusations, the league introduced Peacock would solely stream one of many playoff video games last May.)
Peacock beforehand solely carried the Payments-Chargers recreation on December 23—and the league has solely streamed Thursday night time video games on Amazon just about all season (aside from Thanksgiving). The playoffs get extra consideration, although, which is a part of the rationale the protests over this specific streaming deal had been extra pronounced.
Don’t count on the league to again away from these kinds of exclusives, nonetheless. For one factor, they’re a giant earnings generator. NBC paid a reported $110 million to make the playoff recreation a Peacock unique. (On Sunday, NBC aired the Lions/Rams recreation on each its broadcast channels and Peacock.) Additionally, as linear tv viewership declines and streaming subscriptions turn into extra frequent, the NFL argues it’s merely delivering the product to followers through companies they use.
“We couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with Peacock and are thrilled with the outcomes of the first-ever solely stay streamed NFL playoff recreation,” stated NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a press release. “To finest serve our followers, we have to guarantee video games can be found to them as their viewing habits change and this contains digital distribution as we proceed to assist form the way forward for the sports activities and leisure business.”
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