Peacock’s exclusive streaming of the Dolphins-Chiefs NFL playoff game on Saturday night attracted a live stream record 23 million viewers, but the other three games on Saturday and Sunday drew significantly more people on television.
NBC and Peacock’s Browns-Texans drew 29 million viewers. NBC and Peacock’s Rams-Lions grossed $36 million. And FOX’s Packers-Cowboys grossed $40 million.
Monday’s Eagles-Buccaneers drew nearly 29 million on ESPN. Numbers for Monday’s Steelers-Bills (CBS) were not yet available.
NBC paid around $110 million to broadcast the NFL playoff game exclusively on Peacock.
“[The] NFL is charging between $10 million and $12 million with [the] Peacock cash grab,” Jimmy Traina, who hosts the SI Media podcast, posted on social media.
NBC called Peacock’s game “historic” because it was the first NFL playoff game to be broadcast live.
It’s unclear how many other people signed up for Peacock at $5. 99 per month with the goal of canceling it at no charge after the game.
Still, NBC considers the game to be a huge success.
“Our unprecedented engineering, production and observation groups presented best-in-class Super Wild Card Weekend game broadcasts that helped NBCUniversal achieve media premieres and milestones across multiple platforms,” said Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports. “With two games on average with approximately 29 million viewership on stream alone, our NBC stations aired their largest two-game NFL playoff weekend in 4 years. We thank all of our corporate colleagues and NFL partners for their help in last weekend’s success, and we’re excited to be back. to noisy Ford Field for the NFC Division playoffs this Sunday.
Peacock could exclusively stream NFL playoff games in future years, but nothing is definite yet.
“They’ll definitely be looking forward to it,” Hans Schroder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said on a conference call last week. “Every Sunday night we’ll be on Peacock. When it comes exclusively to the Wild Card game, we’re excited to continue the conversation. It’s a deal for this year, but it’s an NFL playoff game. I hope there will be a lot of interest in it.
“We’re excited to continue the verbal exchange with NBC about what we’re doing this year and see where the opportunities are for next year. But our focus is on Saturday, the Dolphins, Kansas City and all the other games and the big matchups. and a wonderful weekend for our fans.