Saturday’s matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers was the first NFL game that was exclusively shown on Peacock, a streaming service owned by NBC. Naturally, there were a ton of NFL fans who weren’t overly thrilled about this.
The trend of NFL games being shown exclusively on select streaming services was obviously started by Amazon buying the rights to Thursday Night Football, which began last season.
NBC decided to try its hand at using its own streaming service, Peacock, to show Saturday’s primetime matchup. And fans quickly pointed out a number of issues.
Firstly of course is that those who didn’t already have Peacock needed to subscribe to the streaming service in order to watch the game. Some fans opted not to watch the game at all because of this.
Sorry @peacock. Not subscribing just to watch one lonely game all season. So for first time in more than a decade, I don’t have access to a live NFL game. That’s how disinterest starts @NFL.
— Drew Loftis (@NYPost_Loftis) December 24, 2023
Negative. https://t.co/G1ImsWxPzX
— John Crumpler (@JohnHCrumpler) December 24, 2023
https://twitter.com/AmandaGuerraCBS/status/1738728670196363740
Another issue is that it was simply confusing for some fans. The matchup earlier in the day between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals was on NBC. And some fans just assumed that this game would also be shown on NBC, not just exclusively on Peacock.
So Peacock and NBC two different channels?
— That Knigga (@_RellsFargo_) December 24, 2023
I’ll never forgive NBC for making me explain Peacock to half a dozen family members over the last 30 minutes.
— Dan Lyons (@Dan_Lyons76) December 24, 2023
Another controversial choice by NBC was its selling point for the game, a commercial-free broadcast on Peacock for the fourth quarter of the game.
Commercial-free fourth quarter streaming now on @peacock … @chargers lead @BuffaloBills 22-21 with 5 minutes to go https://t.co/HtRGhUxUQZ
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) December 24, 2023
The large majority of fans would obviously love to watch NFL games without any commercials in between. The issue however is that instead of commercials they simply cut to the NBC studio team, which wasn’t very well received by most fans.
Someone in a Peacock production meeting really said, "how about instead of Commercials, we just have Jason Garrett and Chris Collinsworth talk more" and Executives were like: pic.twitter.com/Bif1hcr0eC
— Nate Geary (@NateGearySports) December 24, 2023
There’s no commericals in the 4th!
Now lets kick it to the Hyundai NBC football night in America crew in the NBC studios presented by Hyundai and americas got talent on NBC and peacock
— PFT Commenter (@PFTCommenter) December 24, 2023
As far as the actual broadcast on Peacock, there were also issues there. A number of viewers took to social media to share the poor picture quality they had at times with the streaming service.
If yall want to know what it's like watching the NFL on Peacock, here you go.
Violet also says hey. pic.twitter.com/g6HmePs50w
— BilbeauTBagginsゴゴゴゴ (@BilbeauTBaggins) December 24, 2023
The only saving grace for this broadcast was that the actual game on the field was a pretty compelling one. The Bills were able to come away with a 24-22 victory in a close game throughout.
Bunch of laterals to end the game. Bills win! #BUFvsLAC pic.twitter.com/5FSahB4WLs
— NFL (@NFL) December 24, 2023
Unfortunately for NFL fans, this will not be the last time they will have to deal with a Peacock exclusive broadcast this season. NBC has already announced that it will be airing a Wild Card Playoff game exclusively on Peacock, which will surely draw even more negative feedback.
[NBC Sports PR on Twitter/X, Photo Credit: Peacock]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.