Netflix is interested in a package of 2026 regular-season games that includes the Week 1 contest from Australia. If it had its druthers, it would already be streaming the game to be played one night earlier, in Seattle.
Via Brendon Kleen of Awful Announcing, a recent article from Bloomberg regarding the federal government’s sudden interest in the NFL includes a key claim about Netflix’s ambitions: “Netflix would love to find a way to get the season opener, which currently airs on NBC.”
The Week 1 opener is part of the NBC Sunday night package, which includes the Week 1 opener and the Thanksgiving night game. That won’t change until 2030, at the earliest.
Netflix aspires to televise big events in sports. It may not want a weekly package.
In theory, the NFL could peel the Week 1 opener away from NBC as part of a renegotiation. At a time when NBC may be unwilling to pay the NFL more for the next four years of games, giving up the opener could be part of a compromise.
Still, any movement of a significant event (like the regular-season opener) from a three-letter broadcast network to a streamer will do little to take the steam out of the federal government’s multi-pronged assault on Big Shield.
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