Streaming in sports may very well change the overall landscape of sports league viewership. The NFL playoffs the past few years have averaged a viewership of around 40 million, but the Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins game, which was an introduction to streaming-exclusive games, saw an estimated 10 to 12 million decline in views for the playoffs.
Fans all over the nation were outraged and frustrated by the NFL’s decision to stream a playoff game exclusively on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, but sources close to NBC and the NFL state that this will soon be the norm among the league for years to come.
“The Peacock game Saturday night, the NFL believes streaming is a huge part of the league’s media future,” said Peter King, a partner with NBC and Peacock. “I understand the outrage of having to pay for a game that has always been on cable or over-the-air TV, but I also can see the future, and the future, in some small or increasing part, is going to be the NFL on streaming services.”
With sources coming out and saying the NFL sees streaming as their future, lifelong fans are put in a strange position to either agree that the old NFL is gone and that it is time to embrace the future or to stop watching it altogether.
Andrew Grothe is a sophomore finance major. He thinks that placing playoff games on streaming is going to diminish the overall viewership of the entire league overall, not just the postseason.
“A 10 to 12 million viewership decline is only the tip of the iceberg,” Grothe said. “The NFL may lose a large portion of fans if this is the future of the NFL.”
While the 10 to 12 million decline is significant, there are still plenty of people all over that want to be able to watch games that go on throughout the year, which could lead to them subscribing. Many places around GC have been purchasing Peacock and other streaming services to maintain good attendance at their restaurants or bars during the time of a game.
Norquavias Moss, a manager at Pickle Barrel Cafe & Sports Pub in Milledgeville, notes that the restaurant was properly prepared for this change.
“We had recently purchased a Peacock and Paramount account for this exact reason, and that is what helped us to maintain a good crowd for the game,” Moss said.
While the NFL will likely always have a large following in some sort of way, fan viewership is bound to decline as availability and ease of access decreases. The NFL will likely always be on normal TV to some extent, but professional football fans may need to accept some changes, as media constantly evolves and changes.
