As part of the Week 16 slate of NFL games, NBC Sports presented two matchups with playoff implications emanating in both conferences. On Saturday, the network broadcast live from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium where Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs were hosting C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans.
Data from Nielsen Media Research and Adobe Analytics demonstrated a total audience delivery of 15.5 million viewers for the NFL Holiday Special, which aired live on NBC and Peacock. The audience peaked in the fourth quarter with an average of 20.2 million viewers for the quarter-hour spanning from 3:45 to 4 p.m. EST. The Big Ten Saturday Night broadcast team of Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge and Kathryn Tappen were on the call for this matchup.
NBC Sports broadcast an exclusive NFL holiday game on Peacock last year when the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers faced off in Week 16. The first-ever exclusive NFL game on the streaming platform averaged 7.3 million viewers on Peacock, NFL+ and on NBC stations in Los Angeles and Buffalo. Three weeks later, Peacock served as the exclusive broadcast home of an NFL Wild Card game between the Dolphins and Chiefs that averaged 23 million viewers, setting a record for the most-streamed game in NFL history.
This is the fourth game televised by NBC Sports to air outside of the traditional Sunday Night Football window for the season, accounting for its third most-watched contest away from the timeslot. The NFL Kickoff Game featuring the Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens averaged 29.2 million viewers on Thursday night of Week 1, the second largest regular-season audience at the time since acquiring the Sunday Night Football broadcast package in 2006.
On the next day, the Peacock exclusive presentation of the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles game from São Paulo, Brazil averaged a total audience delivery of 14.0 million viewers, the second most-watched live event on Peacock. Two months later on Thanksgiving Day, the game between the Packers and Miami Dolphins attained a total audience delivery of more than 26 million viewers.
The second game of the weekend featured the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football with Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark on the call for the NFC matchup. Viewership data is not yet available for this Week 16 game. Comcast is currently in the second season of a 10-year media rights deal with the National Football League for which it pays a reported $2 billion per year. The network will broadcast the Super Bowl to conclude the 2025 and 2029 NFL seasons, in addition to continuing its Sunday Night Football broadcasts on a weekly basis.
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