With 25 December falling on a Wednesday this year, the NFL initially said it wasn’t looking to have a Christmas game in 2024.
In March, the league announced it had a change of heart. Then in May the NFL agreed a three-year partnership with Netflix to stream Christmas games – and not just in the US.
“When we saw the viewership from this past year, really our fans spoke,” said Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice-president of media distribution.
“They are very much enjoying and wanting NFL football on Christmas. What we’ve seen the last couple of years is some unprecedented growth, and not just on Christmas, on Thanksgiving too.”
The NFL’s most-watched regular-season game ever was a Thanksgiving game in 2022, attracting 42.1 million viewers.
One of last year’s Christmas games had 29 million – second only to the 1989 game.
“That opportunity, that belief we have that football brings people together – that’s even truer on these big holidays,” Schroeder added.
The league says they will be world sport’s first “truly globally distributed games”.
Inevitably, money is also a factor. ABC/ESPN pay $2.6bn (£2.1bn) to broadcast about 100 NBA games each season, including five Christmas games.
That equates to about $26m per game (£21m). To broadcast two NFL games this Christmas, Netflix has paid a reported $150m (£118m).
