05/13/26 03:06:00
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05/13 15:04 CDT From Week 1 to Super Bowl week, Netflix's new NFL footprint
takes shape through 2029
From Week 1 to Super Bowl week, Netflix's new NFL footprint takes shape through
2029
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer
Netflix has expanded its inventory of NFL games and will have a season-long
presence with the league under a new deal announced Wednesday.
The streaming service will have five regular-season games as well as the NFL
Honors through 2029. It had been carrying two games on Christmas Day since
2024. The announcement was made during its upfront presentation to advertisers.
Netflix will air a Week 1 game, one on Thanksgiving Eve, two on Christmas Day
and a 1 p.m. ET contest on the Saturday of the final week of the regular season.
Two of the matchups --- both featuring the Lost Angeles Rams --- were made
official on Wednesday. Netflix will carry the Week 1 game between the Rams and
San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia. The Rams will then host the Green
Bay Packers in the first Thanksgiving Eve contest on Nov. 25.
Both games will be aired in primetime in the United States at 8:35 p.m. ET. The
Week 1 game will be on Sept. 10 in the U.S. Melbourne is 14 hours ahead of New
York and 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles and San Francisco, so it will kick off
at 10:35 a.m. on Sept. 11 in Australia.
The Australia matchup between NFC West rivals is one of nine international
games the NFL will play this upcoming season. The league released its complete
international slate Wednesday morning.
"We've seen how many fans are already on Netflix, so we thought it was a
tremendous opportunity to deepen the partnership, expand the reach of those
games, and to do so around tentpole events at the beginning and end of the year
with big holidays in the middle, then have them extend into honors and do what
Netflix has shown they do so well, which is make big events even bigger," said
Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution.
Two games --- Thanksgiving Eve and Week 18 --- are from the four the league got
back after ESPN bought NFL Network. The Week 1 game was on YouTube last season.
The NFL Honors started during the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis as a way for
the league to announce all of its award winners in one show. It started airing
the night before the Super Bowl but moved to the Thursday of Super Bowl week in
2022. It had been carried by the network airing the Super Bowl, but will now
get a worldwide audience with the move.
The NFL Honors include the Associated Press awards for Most Valuable Player,
Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, Offensive and Defensive Rookie of
the Year, Coach of the Year, Assistant Coach of the Year and Comeback Player of
the Year.
The full schedule, including the Christmas Day matchups, will be released
Thursday evening. The Week 18 Saturday games, which also include 4:30 and 8:15
p.m. ET matchups on ESPN/ABC, are not announced until six days out because the
league prioritizes games with playoff implications in those spots.
The regular-season schedule was finalized Tuesday morning.
Netflix also announced the third season of the documentary series Quarterback
will debut on July 14. It will feature Washington's Jayden Daniels, Tampa Bay's
Baker Mayfield, Tennessee's Cam Ward, the top pick in the 2025 draft, and Joe
Flacco, who began the season with Cleveland before being traded to Cincinnati.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
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