If there’s a dollar to be made, the NFL will pursue it.
The league wants to take over your entire Thanksgiving week as it is “exploring” adding a game on Thanksgiving Eve as early as this year, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Wednesday.
This would represent even more inventory for the NFL to sell to one of its broadcast partners, and it would be no surprise if they try to charge a nine-figure price for a game that, if played this year, would take place on Wednesday, Nov. 25.
Amazon reportedly pays the NFL $100 million to stream a standalone afternoon game on Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving, while Netflix reportedly pays $150 million per year to stream two games on Christmas, with that contract entering the final year of a three-year deal.
The NFL will surely push for at least $100 million for a potential new standalone, primetime window as their games continue to draw massive viewership every year.
While playing an NFL game on a Wednesday seems like a head-scratcher, it hasn’t stopped the league before; Netflix’s first NFL broadcasts on Christmas Day in 2024 — Chiefs vs. Steelers and Ravens vs. Texans — were on a Wednesday.
To make the scheduling work, those four teams played the previous Saturday instead of Sunday in Week 16.
The NFL already plays three games on Thanksgiving Day, so adding a Thanksgiving Eve game would mark three straight days of games with a one-day respite before a Sunday slate, followed by “Monday Night Football.”