Eagles Brazil Opener to Stream on Peacock
The NFL announced today that the Eagles’ season opener in Brazil will stream exclusively on Peacock.
The decision was announced at the NFL annual owner’s meeting in Orlando by NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution Hans Schroeder.
“As media consumption habits evolve, the NFL continues to work with our partners to put our games on digital platforms where our fans are increasingly spending their time,” said Schroeder. “The viewership success of both Thursday Night Football on Prime Video and the historic Wild Card game on Peacock last season are strong indicators our streaming distribution is resonating with our fans.”
Peacock, which is NBC’s exclusive streaming service, is owned by Comcast, a Philadelphia-headquartered company.
“It’s exciting for Peacock to exclusively showcase the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in Brazil as part of NBC Sports’ unprecedented presentation of three primetime games on the NFL’s opening weekend,” said Rick Cordella, president, NBC Sports. “Peacock continues to deliver the best experience in sports streaming, as this game will follow this summer’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which will have every event live streamed on the service.”
Still, it is not well received by fans.
“Let me just say: there is nothing the NFL or Peacock can do to get me to buy this [expletive] platform,” said one Reddit user on the r/Eagles subreddit. “I’ll either be at a bar or on a pirate ship.”
“I’m canceling the second the game is over,” another user said.
For fans in the Philadelphia area, the game will be aired on a local broadcast network, which will likely be NBC10 given their shared corporate parentage. Fans in the market of the opposing team, which has not yet been announced, will also be able to see it on their local NBC station, according to the official statement. This policy is standard given the NFL’s broadcasting rights and kicks into effect whenever an NFL game is not available on over-the-air networks like CBS, FOX, or ABC. Monday Night Football, which airs on ESPN, fall into this category, so Eagles Monday Night Football games are simulcast on 6ABC. When Eagles games are streamed on Prime Video, including Thursday Night Football games, they are simulcast on FOX 29 in the Philadelphia TV market.
Still, it’s not hard to think that Eagles fans are getting panned by the NFL. The season opener is being played in another country, but the game is officially a home game which robs Eagles fans of one of the ten home games the team would’ve been scheduled for. Then, the game is being taken off of over-the-air networks for a majority of the country and placed behind a paywall.
The NFL announced this at the same time it announced that Prime Video will exclusively carry a playoff game, though which one was not announced.
The game will also be broadcast on the radio on 94 WIP. Merrill Reese and Mike Quick will call the games again for the station.
