For those that begrudgingly signed up for Peacock or didn’t watch the Dolphins/Chiefs game because it was streamed, Kansas City host Carrington Harrison has bad news for you. It’s going to get worse.
On Monday’s edition of The Drive, Harrison said he was really bothered by NBC’s thank you to viewers during Sunday night’s Lions-Rams game.
“I’m not stupid to think that people weren’t going to sign up for the NFL playoffs,” said Harrison. “What upset me most was that they cut a promo basically thanking you for giving them more money. Mike Tirico, this was shameful work from you, my friend.”
Harrison then aired the full thank you Tirico gave during his show.
“What a scene last night as the Chiefs began defense of their Super Bowl title with a 26-7 win over Miami. A night memorable for many reasons,” Tirico noted.
“So many unforgettable images from the fourth-coldest playoff game in NFL history, and passionate NFL fans added to the record books,” he continued. “An average of 23 million people streamed the game on Peacock, making the first-ever NFL playoff game to be exclusively streamed the most streamed event of any kind in the U.S. ever. Super Wild Card Saturday was also an all-time record day for U.S. internet traffic, with most of those people interacting with NFL content online. Congratulations to our Comcast and NBCUniversal teammates, and thanks to Commissioner Roger Goodell, our partners at the NFL, and all the fans, on this record setting collaboration. A milestone moment in media and sports history.”
Harrison responded saying the NFL and NBC laid it on heavy there with that statement.
“A milestone moment!” Carrington joked. “They thanked us for buying their pay-per-view. That’s what they did. They thanked you.”
Given that Saturday night was a record setting night for streaming, Harrison gave fans a heads up that it’s likely more than one playoff game will be streamed starting next year.
“I am telling you this is bad. They just put one game behind the paywall. They are going to keep doing this because it works,” he said. “It worked, and it didn’t work a little bit. It was an overwhelming success.”
Carrington also said it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility if the league eventually moved to put one of the Thanksgiving games behind a paywall. That’s where he thinks it’s headed.
