Netflix is paying big money to the NFL for some Christmas Day football.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the streaming giant will pay about $75 million per game for the two games on Dec. 25: Chiefs vs. Steelers and Ravens vs. Texans.
Netflix will begin hosting this year’s games while also snagging a holiday game in 2025 and 2026, according to The Journal.
Front Office Sports previously reported that the bidding started at $50 million, with the league hoping for as high as $100 million, but it wound up splitting between the two figures.
In January, Peacock broadcasted a wild-card playoff game and paid $110 million with outstanding results for their business, although it upset some fans.
This upcoming season, Amazon hopes for equally excellent results while paying $120 million for a wild-card game that will be broadcast on its streaming platform, Prime Video.
Netflix vice president Spencer Wang told Deadline that he would characterize each game being bought as “roughly the size of one of our medium-sized original films.”
The Irishman, which had a $225 million budget before the record-setting purchase of the script, is the most Netflix has spent on a movie to date.
Netflix has tied up significant capital in sports to date, signing a 10-year broadcasting deal with the WWE for $5 billion.
The streaming giant is also going to be broadcasting Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson, a boxing card that it hopes will help bring in new customers while also retaining them after the fact.
The NFL will likely make some concessions to Fox and CBS, which are now losing major games that would otherwise be broadcast on their networks.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk speculated that these networks might be “miffed” that they have to compete for games that would otherwise be a part of their normal package of 272 games.
