Peacock’s NFL Debut and the Viability of Streaming-Only Sports

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the NFL’s first streaming exclusive playoff game, which featured the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs on Peacock. They break down why this should largely be considered a success for Peacock, how to retain the influx of new subscribers, and if the streaming exclusive sporting event is the right path forward. Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the next host of the Oscars. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! thetown@spotify.com Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Issa Kwona and I'm Ryan Hunt.
0:02.3	And we co-host, Stadio, a football podcast, on the Ring of Podcast Network.
0:06.6	If you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:15.8	It is Tuesday, January 16th.
0:19.1	If you're an NFL fan, most Americans are,
0:22.4	Saturday's game between the Chiefs and the Dolphins
0:25.0	will forever be known as the Peacock game,
0:28.0	first playoff game exclusively on a streaming service.
0:31.9	The NFL has been experimenting with streaming partners for a few years now.
0:35.4	Amazon has Thursday night football,
0:37.3	both CBS and NBC simulcast their games on their streamers. But this was the first time that you
0:42.6	had to sign up for a service to see who advanced beyond the wildcard game. NBC Universal
0:47.7	Payday reported $110 million just for the rights to do so. The results were success, question mark.
0:56.0	The game averaged 23 million viewers, according to NBC.
0:59.0	That includes the linear audience in the Kansas City and Miami markets,
1:02.9	down from the average wildcard game, but up from the same game in that time slot a year ago.
1:08.1	I was surprised how big the audience was, actually, considering Peacock is only
1:11.8	in about 30 million homes total. At least it was at the end of last year. But the NFL is the NFL.
1:18.1	People got to watch. And this game did exactly what NBC paid all that money for it to do.
1:22.6	Got people to check out Peacock, which they did. Peacock shot to the top of the app store. It spiked on Google
1:29.5	trends. People bitched about it, of course, all over social media. And the NFL definitely took a
1:34.2	small hit from its fans, essentially charging for something they used to get for free. But at one point,
	...

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