For the second consecutive year, the NFL is set to host a Friday night game in Brazil during the season’s opening week. Last year, NBC’s Peacock streaming service had exclusive rights to the matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. However, this year, the league is taking the game to the open market.
According to a report by Ben Fischer and Austin Karp in Sports Business Journal, the NFL is marketing a mini-package that includes the Brazil game on September 5, along with potentially other games not currently tied to a broadcast partner. Sources indicate that YouTube TV, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Amazon are interested in these rights, with YouTube being viewed as a frontrunner. Among these contenders, only Amazon currently has the resources to produce its own NFL broadcast. If the rights go to YouTube or WBD, they would need to either build their own production teams or likely rent them from existing NFL partners.
Since 2023, YouTube TV has held exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market package, yet it has never produced its own game broadcast. Meanwhile, TNT has not showcased an NFL game since 1997, concluding its partial-season package with the league.
Last year’s NFL Brazil game attracted 14.7 million viewers on Peacock. Although it seems probable that this year’s Brazil game won’t be streamed on Peacock, the service will still get an exclusive game during the upcoming season. Additionally, the Kansas City Chiefs are likely to face off against the Los Angeles Chargers in this game.
Last week, NFL VP of broadcast planning and scheduling Mike North hinted that the complete NFL schedule is expected to be released around May 13-15.
