NFL playoffs take the next step with exclusive streaming of Kansas City vs. Miami on Peacock

On paper, Saturday night’s Miami-Kansas City NFL wild-card playoff game should be a viewership hit, featuring star players, marquee franchises and frigid weather that figures to provide memorable images.

But it likely will be the game least-seen of the six this weekend, surely with a smaller audience than it would have had on a broadcast television outlet.

That is because for the first time, an NFL playoff game will be available exclusively on a streaming service (other than in the markets of the teams involved, where it also will be seen on broadcast TV).

NBCUniversal paid a reported $110 million for the privilege of adding the game on their Peacock streaming service to the two it already had this weekend on television.

The NFL’s decision to farm out a playoff game to a streamer is certain to confuse and/or anger millions of fans, but the league sees this as part of the evolution of content to live streaming.

“It’s been an important focus of ours for a long time to continue to grow and expand,” Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president for media distribution, said on a call with reporters on Wednesday.

“Today as the media ecosystem evolves around us, a lot of that is continuing to expand on digital and growing our presence on the screens and in the places and platforms where we know our fans are spending their time.”

Peacock’s lowest-priced subscription costs $5.99 per month, plus tax, so some fans presumably will treat this as a pay-per-view opportunity, simply canceling after the game.

But NBC hopes some who come for the game will sample other content and perhaps stick around.

“There’s a little misconception this is a pay-per-view for $6,” said Rick Cordella, NBC Sports president. “The reality is you’re getting a lot of value for $6 beyond just Saturday night.”

Amazon Prime Video has streamed Thursday night games exclusively for the past two seasons, but an attractive playoff game is another milestone in the move to digital distribution.

Schroeder said Peacock has 30 million subscribers and reaches more than 70 million people in the United States, figures well below the reach of broadcast television or a basic cable channel such as ESPN.

Schroeder said the NFL remains “very committed to broadcast,” but added, “We know and we see the continued evolution in the media landscape, and we want to be where our fans are.

“We know they’re increasingly, especially younger fans, on different screens. So that’s why it’s important for us, not just for this wild card game, but throughout the year, that we’re on Peacock and Paramount+ and Amazon and these different digital platforms, and why our distribution is on somewhere like NFL+.”

He said of broadcast and live streaming, “For us, it’s not either/or; it’s both.”

So, how many people will end up watching the game? Schroeder said that will be part of the NFL’s education process.

“We’re going to take a lot of learnings from it,” he said. “Certainly, viewership will be one of them.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.