Amazon secures NFL wild card game for 2025; Peacock to air Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 1 matchup live from Brazil.
The NFL announced on Tuesday that once again, a playoff game will be available for streaming on a major platform.
Amazon, which secured exclusive streaming rights to Thursday Night Football starting from the 2023 season, will stream a wild card game in January 2025. The company reportedly paid $120 million for the rights to broadcast the game.
This reported $120 million price tag exceeds by $10 million what NBC Universal paid to air the Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins wild card game last season, marking the NFL’s first exclusive playoff game on a streaming platform.
The investment proved fruitful, as per NBC reports, with the Chiefs’ 26-7 victory drawing an average of about 23 million viewers and reaching approximately 27.6 million viewers overall, peaking at over 24.6 million in the second quarter. Moreover, the game marked the largest streaming day in Peacock’s history with 16.3 million concurrent devices.
Given the success of the game, it’s unsurprising that the NFL returned to this format for another opportunity for revenue, with streaming platforms eager to participate.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 1 game from São Paulo, Brazil will exclusively air on Peacock. While the opponent hasn’t been officially confirmed, Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy indicated after the NFL’s annual meetings that the league is deliberating between the Packers and Cleveland Browns.
Although Green Bay is under consideration, signs point to the Browns being the selection. Browns defensive tackle Maurice Hurst inadvertently revealed last week on the Cleveland Browns Daily Show that, “We’re playing in Brazil this year,” before retracting the statement.
Supporting the Browns-to-Brazil speculation, former NBC Sports writer Peter King suggested in one of his final columns, “Feeling good about Cleveland-Philadelphia in Brazil on the evening of Friday, Sept. 6.”
This game, set to occur at Arena Corinthians, will mark the NFL’s inaugural regular-season game in South America and the first Friday night opening weekend game in 50 years.
Both the Amazon and Peacock exclusive streams will also be broadcast on local over-the-air television networks in the respective teams’ markets.
The São Paulo game in Week 1 will be one of five NFL International Series games in the 2024 season. London, England will host three games, with the Jacksonville Jaguars playing at Wembley Stadium, and the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings hosting games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The fifth overseas game will see the Carolina Panthers play host at Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.
