By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –Follow on X.
Former Sony employee and editor of 4 TV magazines.
NBC says the average audience for Saturday’s Kansas City Chiefs-Miami Dolphins game was 23 million while nearly 28 million tuned in at some point during the game. The network says this marks the biggest audience ever for a live streaming event in the United States. (The viewer numbers also included NFL Plus and local coverage in Kansas City and Miami.)
If the numbers are correct — and Nielsen will release its official count later this week — it will also mean that NBC’s decision to spend $110 million for the exclusive national rights to the game seems to have paid off, at least in the short term. Peacock’s streaming service costs $5.99 a month although it offered annual subscriptions for 50 percent off late last week.
The Chiefs-Dolphins game, won by the Chiefs, 26-7, was the first NFL playoff ever that was available as a national streaming exclusive. (The game was also available on local channels in the Miami and Kansas City markets, and NFL Plus, the league’s streaming service.)
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“From NBC Sports and Peacock to the Comcast team, our entire company worked seamlessly to plan for this game and executed flawlessly to deliver a streaming experience with the NFL on a scale that’s never been done before. It’s a very proud moment,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a press release. (Comcast owns NBC and Peacock.)
The NBC release says roughly 30 percent of U.S. Internet traffic on Saturday came from the Chiefs-Dolphins game. The network says the game contributed to the biggest Internet usage ever on a single day in the United States.
Despite the increase in viewers, Peacock did not suffer any significant technical meltdowns during the game, although some viewers complained of buffering. Downdetector.com, which tracks online outages, says the number of complaints online during the game barely topped 1,000. That’s a relatively small number when you factor in that more than 20 million were watching.
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Paid off? I think that’s a bit misleading at this point. How many of those 23M represented actual new Peacock subscriptions? That’s the key datapoint. Didn’t Peacock have an existing subscriber base of almost 30M? I’m sure some of those existing subscribers did sign up because of the NFL deal, so definitely include those. But I think it’s a stretch to look at the 23M number, multiply that by $5.99 and suggest that means it was a good deal. Especially when that 23M includes local OTA and NFL+ viewers.
Of course the NFL and NBC spin doctors will say this was a good deal but I would want some relevant data first before making such a pronouncement.
It might be record viewership for streaming, but:
FOX Sports Averages 40 Million Viewers for Packers-Cowboys Wild Card Game | Barrett Media
Ha ha.