When Netflix made its NFL debut on Christmas Day, Beyoncé brought more excitement than either of the games.
The 32-time Grammy Award winner, who appeared at halftime on a white horse, wowed his hometown crowd on Wednesday with a nearly 13-minute performance.
She surprised fans by bringing out Shabzi to perform “Sweet Honey Buckin’,” and Post Malone joined her in “Levis Jeans.”
The NFL showcased four of the AFC’s top five teams, but their action on the field did not live up to expectations.
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce exposed Pittsburgh’s defensive deficiencies in Kansas City’s 29-10 loss in Game 1.
According to NFL Media, the broadcast itself went off without a hitch and quickly became Netflix’s second most popular live title of all time.
Lamar Jackson and the Ravens led CJ Stroud and the Texans 17-2 at halftime, and Beyoncé stole the show. Baltimore won 31-2 with Jackson resting for most of the fourth quarter.
Mariah Carey opens the football doubleheader with a taped performance of “All I Want for Christmas is You” before the two-time Super Bowl champion Chiefs defeat the Steelers to claim the No. 1 seed in the AFC. .
There were no signs of major streaming issues during the game, after Netflix experienced a small failure at the start of its pregame show. The broadcast began with about 10 seconds of silence, as studio host Kay Adams’ microphone did not appear to be on.
Beyoncé’s live performance at NRG Stadium was supposed to be the biggest test for the streaming giant, but it appeared to go off without a hitch.
Mahomes threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns and Kelce had eight catches for 84 yards and a score as the Chiefs (15-1) earned a first-round bye and home-field advantage through the AFC playoffs. The Steelers (10-6) have lost three straight and may have to compromise to earn a wild-card spot.
Jackson threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score, Derrick Henry rushed for 147 yards and a TD, and the Ravens (11-5) moved into first place in the AFC North, one game ahead of Pittsburgh. surfaced.
Netflix agreed to a three-year deal to broadcast Christmas Day games in May. The NFL is expected to have its biggest day since the streaming service launched the site in 1998.
Netflix’s 282.3 million subscribers in more than 190 countries will be able to stream the game, marking the first time a single broadcaster will broadcast an NFL game worldwide. Netflix made the game available in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
Netflix had issues streaming the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight on November 14th. The match reached 65 million concurrent streams at its peak, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. Nearly 85,000 viewers recorded outages and streaming issues before and during the game, according to the website Down Detector.
There were fewer complaints Wednesday.
NFL Media said viewers in all 50 states tuned in within minutes of the live pregame show starting, and viewers in nearly 200 countries watched the first game. Before the Ravens-Texans game began, Netflix reported that it had surpassed its highest concurrent viewership for Christmas over the past four years.
The NFL was playing its first game on Wednesday since the Steelers and Ravens were forced to play on Dec. 2, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 1948, the only time the league has played on a Wednesday was in the 2012 season opener, when the Giants and Cowboys faced off.
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Netflix promoted its own programming in addition to its usual mass advertising. The first teaser trailer for Happy Gilmore 2 was released before kickoff. Adam Sandler will return as Happy Gilmore in the sports comedy, which will be released on the streaming service in 2025. Travis Kelsey also appears in the trailer, which is packed with cameos from celebrities including Bad Bunny and Kid Cudi.
new christmas traditions
The NFL played its first two divisional playoff games on Christmas Day 1971. The league avoided games on December 25 from 1972 to 1988, moving all games to Saturdays if Christmas Day fell on a Sunday. Since 1989, there have been 30 games on Christmas Day, but never more than three games on that day. But the NFL went out of its way to schedule two games on Wednesday to accommodate its $150 million deal with Netflix.
broadcast team
JJ Watt, brother of three-time AP Defensive Player of the Year and four-time Steelers All-Pro edge rusher TJ Watt, and former NFL wide receiver Nate Burleson will be the analysts at the Chiefs-Steelers game. Duties were divided and Ian Eagle took part. -Byplay.
“I’m very proud of him, but I’m a little worried that he’s coming close to a lot of my records,” JJ Watt said of his younger brother at the beginning of the broadcast.
Ian’s son, Noah Eagle, was the play-by-play broadcaster for the Ravens-Texans game, with former NFL tight end Greg Olsen taking the analyst seat.
It’s not the first time
This isn’t the first time an NFL game has been broadcast exclusively on a streaming service. The league’s Thursday night games are in their third season on Amazon Prime Video, with Peacock streaming the Packers-Eagles game in Sao Paulo, Brazil in Week 1, and Prime Video streaming the wild-card game. It is scheduled to be distributed. Additionally, the “Sunday Ticket” package was moved to YouTube TV last year.
The largest audience for a streaming-exclusive NFL game was 23 million viewers on Peacock for last season’s AFC Wild Card Game between the Miami Dolphins and the Chiefs.
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