Netflix adds three more NFL games including Thanksgiving eve

Netflix has secured the rights to three more NFL competitions amid government scrutiny into migrating games from free TV to streaming.

The first-ever NFL regular season game in Melbourne, featuring the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, will air September 10 on Netflix, the company announced Wednesday during its upfront presentation in New York. Netflix will premiere another NFL game on November 25 with a Thanksgiving Eve game between the Rams and Green Bay Packers at SoFi Stadium.

The streamer will also resume a Saturday game during the final week of the regular season. With the Christmas double-header Netflix has been offering since 2024, the additions bring the total to five games next season.

All five games were part of ESPN’s NFL package. ESPN relinquished those rights after the league took a 10% stake in the Walt Disney Co-owned entity.

It was widely believed in the sports media industry that all five games would be broadcast on streamers, split between Netflix and YouTube. But the other two will go to Fox, an international game broadcast in the morning in the United States, and to NBC.

The two additional games will be aimed at its traditional television partners after Washington politicians, including President Trump, expressed concerns about the number of NFL contests that are no longer broadcast and are behind streaming paywalls.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Fox Corp. Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch visited Trump at the White House in February to warn that traditional television networks could be locked out of the NFL because of competition from deep-pocketed streamers.

The Justice Department also questioned whether the NFL was violating antitrust status granted to leagues when their teams collectively negotiate television rights deals.

An NFL executive familiar with the deal, but who was not authorized to comment publicly, said the extra-broadcast games were not related to the issues raised in Washington. “We are always looking for ways to increase our reach for the benefit of our fans,” the executive said.

In recent years, the NFL has removed a number of games from broadcast packages and sold them to Netflix and YouTube. These games primarily come from Sunday afternoon regional games broadcast on Fox and CBS.

But the NFL argues that it offers 87% of its games on free live television, more than any other major sport. Games sold to streamers are still available on local TV channels in the featured teams’ local markets.

Asked about his father’s White House meeting, Fox Corp. Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch told Wall Street analysts Monday that there was no tension between the league and his company, which has carried the NFL since 1994.

Murdoch also said there have been no new negotiations with the NFL, which has expressed a desire to redo its current set of media rights that runs through the 2032-33 season but has an opt-out in 2030. Murdoch has previously said the company is paying fair market value in its current deal.

In addition to the international game in Week 10, Fox will get an additional Saturday game in Week 15.

The NFL believes its product is undervalued in light of the massive 11-year, $76 billion deal the NBA struck with NBC, Amazon and ESPN last year. The NFL is in the middle of an 11-year deal that pays it $110 billion for games with much higher ratings.

The league also said the shift to streaming in recent years — which includes putting the Thursday Night Football package on Amazon Prime Video — was necessary to reach younger viewers who don’t watch traditional television. Thursday games are broadcast on free television in the featured teams’ local markets.

The NFL has the right to renegotiate with CBS prior to this opt-out due to the transfer of ownership of the network. CBS parent company Paramount was acquired by Skydance Media last year.

The NFL and CBS are not close to the new deal. The league is considering raising network fees from $2.1 billion a year to $3 billion, according to people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to comment.

The NFL is currently a break-even proposition for CBS at current prices.

But the NFL enjoys a significant advantage in that broadcast networks and their affiliated stations rely on the league, which provides the vast majority of top-rated television programming. NFL games provide major leverage for television network groups as they negotiate new carriage deals with cable and satellite providers.