With the NFL season still over two months away, Elle Duncan has teased Netflix's plans for Week 1 and beyond.
Netflix will have the exclusive rights to stream a Week 1 showdown in Australia between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. The streaming platform will also get to present a Thanksgiving Eve matchup involving the Green Bay Packers and Rams. Additionally, Netflix will stream a Christmas Day doubleheader and Week 18 regular-season game.
According to Duncan, there'll be a consistent studio crew for all five of Netflix's NFL games.
"We’re not doing an 18-game slate," Duncan told Sports Media Watch. "We want every single one of our events to, yes, have a through-line and some consistency, and you’ll get that with the desk and the talent."
Duncan didn't reveal who'll be part of the studio crew for Netflix. We'd have to imagine they'll sign a few notable names.
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Will Netflix eventually bid on an entire season worth of games?
Netflix’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, said in May that he doesn't expect the streaming giant to acquire a whole season's worth of games in the near future.
“We’re not bidding on whole season of sports, including the NFL,” Sarandos said.
It's also worth noting that Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said broadcast networks like ABC, CBS and FOX will remain a fixture for the league.
“We think broadcast [networks] have been an incredible home. And, now, we also know fans are increasingly spending their time on other platforms as well. They tune into broadcast for the NFL and that’s where we want to be. But we also want to be on these platforms with a limited amount of our games where we know our NFL fans are already as well,” Schroeder said. “When we’re going onto Netflix, we’re going onto a platform that is already massively adopted and a huge number of viewers on that platform already, including a huge number of NFL fans.”
Suffice to say, Netflix won't take over the NFL's schedule just yet.
