Kansas City, Missouri – The highly anticipated wild-card round matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins will be exclusively aired on the streaming service Peacock, owned by NBC. The game, scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. ET at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, will only be available to viewers in Kansas City and Miami who have access to NBC stations.
For fans outside of these areas, watching the defending champions begin their playoff run will come at a cost, as they will need to pay a subscription fee to watch the game. This game is particularly significant as it marks the first time in NFL history that a playoff game will be exclusively aired on a streaming platform.
NBC has previously experimented with exclusive streaming broadcasts on Peacock, with the game between the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers attracting 7.3 million viewers. The peak viewership occurred during the NFL’s first-ever commercial-free fourth quarter, with an average of 8.4 million viewers from 10:45-11 p.m. ET.
Peacock reportedly paid the NFL an estimated $110 million for the rights to air the first-ever exclusive, live-streamed NFL playoff game, signaling a deliberate move by the league to feature a highly popular team like the Chiefs during primetime.
In comparison, last year’s wild-card games across various networks averaged 28.8 million viewers. While it is unlikely that the Dolphins-Chiefs game on Peacock will achieve those numbers, surpassing 20 million viewers would still be considered a significant success.
The success of this subscriber strategy is being closely monitored by both Peacock officials and the NFL. The Chiefs’ and Dolphins’ fans outside of their home markets will determine whether or not this approach proves fruitful. The outcome of this experiment could potentially influence future broadcasting decisions for the league.
In conclusion, this weekend’s wild-card round matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins will be exclusively aired on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. Viewers outside of Kansas City and Miami will need to pay a subscription fee to watch the game. With the NFL’s first-ever exclusive streaming playoff game, both the league and Peacock are hoping to attract a substantial audience and evaluate the success of this new broadcasting strategy.