NBC and Peacock partner Peter King gave a bold report on how the NFL views over-the-top streaming services after the Kansas City Chiefs Wild Card matchup against the Miami Dolphins on Saturday night.
On Monday morning, the well-beloved sports writer wrote about Peacock’s ratings and the future of streaming football in his Football Morning In America column. King, who one can watch his podcast via the streaming platform Peacock, wrote he was stunned by how well the ratings did on Saturday.
King said the league purposely tried to give the Peacock streaming service a marquee matchup:
Roger Goodell was intent on giving NBC’s Peacock streaming service a good game for its $110-million investment in it, and though the Dolphins didn’t cooperate in the 26-7 loss to Kansas City, Peacock got the full Patrick Mahomes/Taylor Swift/minus-30 windchill experience.
NBC released its numbers for the game late Sunday night, saying the average audience in streaming and over-the-air (in Kansas City and Miami markets) was 23 million. That eclipses last year’s Saturday night Wild Card game, Chargers-Jags, by 6 percent, per NBC. That Saturday primetime game last year drew 20.8 million viewers.
Despite what messages were being vomited on social media by angry fans, a lot of people were signing up and subscribing to Peacock so they could watch football.
It would appear the love of football is stronger than the American public’s appetite for non-live-violent entertainment in sub-freezing conditions.
Peacock is the future of the NFL
Because of the American people’s unwillingness to unite and boycott corporate greed, King is reporting the league knows streaming these games on subscriber over-the-top services is where this all is headed:
“Re: the Peacock game Saturday night, the NFL believes streaming is a huge part of the league’s media future. I understand the outrage of having to pay for a game that has always been on cable or over-the-air TV. But I also can see the future, and the future, in some small or increasing part, is going to be the NFL on streaming services. “
So yes, fans. Those of you crying in the X wilderness about the league and streaming services eventually mining your pockets for every game, you probably were on to something–despite talking points of anti-trust congress stuff. Congress isn’t going to kill the NFL gravy train. That would be “crazy” to do.
The league knows you won’t stop watching. Football is too good to quit- even if you have to sit through minutes of heartbreaking buffering to watch a referee purposely miss a holding call. And the data from NBC is there to prove it.
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