NBCUniversal and the NFL have confirmed that Peacock will become home to the first-ever exclusive live streamed NFL Playoff game next year.
It’s been a busy few days for fans of football. Last week, the NFL confirmed the full schedule for the 2023 season, including the Prime Video 2023 Thursday Night Football schedule. Amazon also recently confirmed that its first-ever Black Friday game will see the New York Jets taking on the Miami Dolphins
Now, in yet another first, NBCUniversal and the NFL have jointly announced that an exclusive NFL Playoff game will only be available to stream on Peacock. The exclusive game will immediately follow a late afternoon NFL Wild Card Playoff game that’s being shown on NBC and Peacock (4:30 PM ET on Sat. Jan. 13).
Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports, said “We are thrilled to partner with the NFL on this industry milestone, bringing to Peacock the first ever exclusively live streamed NFL Playoff game.” Bevacqua also added, “As Peacock continues to grow, nothing says ‘must-have’ programming more than live NFL games.”
Hans Schroeder, NFL Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NFL Media, said “Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining wide reach for our games continues to be a key priority for the League, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to Peacock’s streaming platform is the next step in that strategy.”
As this Wild Card game is exclusive to Peacock, football fans will need to be signed up for a paid Peacock subscription if they want to stream the game live online on January 13, 2024 at 8:00 PM ET.
Peacock currently offers two main plans, Premium and Premium Plus, with the main difference being the use of ads. The ad-supported Peacock Premium plan costs $4.99 per month (or $49.99 per year) while the ad-free Peacock Premium Plus plan costs $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year).
If you happen to live in an area where one of the teams is based, then you will still be able to catch the game on your local NBC channel, providing you have a live TV plan with access to your local NBC channel, or are set up to receive the free, over-the-air version.
While not much help in this situation, Peacock also recently started offering subscribers access to their local NBC stations. Unlike the exclusive game, local NBC access is reserved for those signed up to the $9.99 per month Premium Plus plan.
If neither Peacock nor local NBC is an option, NBCUniversal and the NFL have confirmed that the game will be available to watch via NFL+. However, it should be noted that, unlike Peacock, NFL+ is only available to watch on mobile devices.
