Insider suggests Netflix could lose out on Christmas Day NFL games

It seems that the two NFL games scheduled for Christmas Day 2024 may not stream on Netflix, after all. 

"There’s industry buzz that Amazon is making a strong push to win the rights to one or both of the December 25 games, after it appeared that Netflix was poised to pilfer the Christmas games," NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk revealed late Monday night.  

It was first reported last week that Netflix had emerged as the "likely winner" for the rights to the pair of contests scheduled for Christmas even though the holiday falls on a Wednesday later this year. That same story made it known that the parties had "to clear some hurdles before" a deal was announced. 

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated wrote for a piece published earlier on Monday that the schedule release for the 2024 NFL regular season had been pushed back to this Wednesday because of "the NFL’s process of pulling back two games from the Sunday of Week 17 and putting them on Christmas Day." 

Florio previously said the NFL could want "as much as $100M" from a media partner for each of the Christmas games, and it's now safe to assume the league continued negotiations with Netflix, Amazon and other outlets regarding those matchups through at least Monday afternoon. 

"Keeping the games with an existing broadcast partner could be wise for the NFL," Florio added on Monday night. "With a variety of networks and streamers committed through 2029 at a minimum, the idea that the NFL would claw two games from the 272-game slate in 2024 and sell them to an outside entity was ruffling feathers."

Amazon reportedly pays an average of $1.2B per year for the rights to "Thursday Night Football" broadcasts. However, Florio hinted that "a mystery bidder" could steal one or both Christmas games from Netflix and/or Amazon. YouTube TV, now the exclusive at-home provider of the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market package, could be that bidder. 

Logic suggests the NFL would want to announce where the Christmas games will air either before or during the full schedule release set to occur on Wednesday night. 

That's not a must for anybody involved, though, especially if continuing negotiations through the spring could result in the league earning more money for contests that attracted over 27 million viewers this past December.