Netflix eyes NFL opener

Netflix has told people it wants the National Football League’s season-opening game, a marquee kickoff now tied to NBC’s Sunday Night Football package. (sports.yahoo.com) Bloomberg reported this week that Netflix “would love” to get the opener, while also saying the league is trying to interest Netflix in a game on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The same report said the opener currently airs on NBC. (bloomberg.com) Any switch appears years away. NBCUniversal’s 11-year renewal with the National Football League began with the 2023 season and keeps Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock through the 2033 season. (corporate.comcast.com) The opener matters because it sits inside the league’s top prime-time package, not in the smaller bundles the National Football League has recently carved out for streamers. NBC’s package also includes the Thanksgiving night game. (sports.yahoo.com) Netflix is not starting from zero with the league. The National Football League announced in May 2024 that Netflix would carry two Christmas Day games in 2024 and at least one Christmas game in both 2025 and 2026. (nfl.com) That Christmas deal gave Netflix a foothold in live National Football League rights after years of sports documentaries and one-off events. Netflix’s own 2025 Christmas game page shows it carried Cowboys-Commanders and Lions-Vikings on December 25, 2025. (netflix.com) The league is also shopping a separate package of five national games for the 2026 season. Reporting this week said that slate could include the Week 1 game from Australia, a Thanksgiving Eve game, a second Black Friday game, and a Christmas Eve game, with Netflix among the bidders. (sports.yahoo.com) Those talks are unfolding under new scrutiny in Washington. ESPN reported on April 10 that the Department of Justice has opened a probe into whether the National Football League’s media deals harm consumers as more games move onto subscription streaming services. (espn.com) For NBCUniversal, the stakes are obvious. The company said last week that its upcoming National Football League season will be its highest-grossing ever and that it had already sold out all advertising for Super Bowl LX on February 8, 2026. (nbcuniversal.com) So Netflix’s interest in the opener is less about one Thursday night in September than about the next reshuffle of the National Football League’s most valuable windows. Under the current contracts, that fight does not look likely to reach the opener before 2030 at the earliest. (sports.yahoo.com)