It’s time. For the first time ever — and it would have happened somewhere else if not on Peacock — a playoff game will stream exclusively, except in the home markets of the two teams.
It’s not the future. The future is now. Whether the NFL is trying to keep up with the times or drive them, a playoff game will be available only via streaming.
The first hint of it came when Amazon purchased the rights to Thursday Night Football. The deal included the opportunity to stream a playoff game, based on certain viewership triggers.
Ultimately, the game landed on Peacock instead of Amazon. If not Peacock, it would have been ESPN+ or Paramount+ or Netflix or YouTube or Apple.
I know many of you are upset. But if the game was destined to stream somewhere, why not Peacock? NBC reportedly paid $110 million for the privilege to host the game.
Again, it was going to be streaming somewhere. So it’s exclusively streaming on NBC’s service. Where PFT Live exclusively streams. Where plenty of other great stuff exclusively streams.
You can watch the game (and get a full month of all other content) for only $5.99. For a limited time, you can get an entire year of Peacock for only $29.99. (Terms apply.).
Many fear that this will lead to more playoff games on pay TV. The risk for the NFL, as recently explained, is the loss of the antitrust exemption. At some point, Congress will stand up and say, basically, if you’re not going to make key games available on traditional broadcast TV, you don’t get a broadcast antitrust exemption.
For now, the decision is simple. The choice is yours. Access to the game and the entire Peacock library for a month for only $5.99 is a bargain. And I’d say that even if I wasn’t an employee of NBC.
I think.
