After paying roughly $150 million to air two NFL games on Christmas, Netflix has found its broadcasting team.
Per The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, the crew for the two games will be Ian Eagle and Noah Eagle as play-by-play broadcasters, former Houston Texans great JJ Watt, Greg Olsen, and Nate Burleson as analysts.
Ian Eagle, Burelson, and Watt will reportedly call the early game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers, while Noah Eagle and Olsen will call the late contest between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans.
A major move by Netflix.
Watt, who retired from the NFL following the 2022 season, made his broadcasting debut during the 2023 season. Watt, Ian Eagle, and Burleson work for CBS but will be paid by Netflix for their coverage of the Christmas Day games.
Streaming games online will continue to be part of the future for the NFL.
Amazon already owns the Black Friday game, as well as the “Thursday Night Football” package.
YouTube TV has the Sunday Ticket package.
Soon, we can expect every game to be part of some kind of streaming package, further squeezing the pockets of football-crazed fans.
Netflix And The NFL Announced Three-Year Deal
As we get further and further into the future, we are having to deal with games being streamed online.
The NFL’s Christmas Day games are the latest marquee contests to move from broadcast television to streaming under a new deal announced earlier this year.
The league announced it had signed a three-year deal with Netflix to broadcast at least one Christmas game live each season.
Part of the deal stated that the streaming giant will get two Christmas Day games in 2024.
This marks the latest in the NFL’s bet on streaming services.
