NFL Subtly Shifts TV Schedule To Streaming-First

May 14

This month, Roger Goodell quietly spelled out the NFL’s main focus going forward: The league is going to be streaming-first, to an extent, even if most games still appear on broadcast.

During a Vanity Fair profile, the NFL commissioner was eager to point out that “… Netflix is not a small distribution. In fact, you can make an argument it’s bigger than some of the networks.”

It’s a small comment in the big scheme, especially as part of a much larger story about Goodell. But it highlights just how much the league is seeing and embracing a streaming-first future.

For instance, while Sunday games will appear weekly on networks like NBC, CBS and ESPN, all three also aren’t shy about pushing audiences to watch live on their respective streaming platforms. ESPN and ABC’s impending Super Bowl in February (on Valentine’s Day!) will certainly be pushing a streaming-focused narrative for the game, too.

But the bigger clues about the league’s streaming approach come from which games are appearing where, as the streaming matchups have improved over time.

Cashing In On Thursdays

After years of (subjectively) forgettable Thursday night matchups, last year’s slate was decisively better. From start to finish, the schedule featured a good mix of top teams, competitive games and big-market draws. For fans that held out on subscribing to Amazon Prime Video because they felt like they could pass on Thursdays, it was finally time to cave.

Thursdays became just as crucial to the weekly NFL schedule as any other day of the week. And the TV ratings proved as much, too.

Amazon reported that 2025 was the most-watched season in Thursday Night Football’s history, with an average of 15.3 million viewers per game.

Without the full schedule even released yet for 2026 (that’s due this evening, on May 14), you can see the same sort of game strategy playing out again.

The streaming service will kick off its Thursday night coverage this season with a marquee matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions in week two. Other rumored contests include the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams, Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles, and the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Cincinnati Bengals (among others).

None of those matchups are easy for fans to pass up on, which is by design. The NFL wants fans to think of streaming as arguably the first place to catch the biggest games of the week.

Need more proof?

New Normal With Netflix

Previously, Netflix’s NFL exposure had been limited to documentaries and Christmas games. But for 2026, the streaming giant will air live NFL action five separate times.

Looking at the rumored and announced games thus far, the service — and the NFL — are betting that fans will want to tune into the Super Bowl-contending Rams. And this season, they’ll need Netflix to do so (unless they’re already in the Los Angeles market footprint).

Netflix kicks off its slate of games with a Thursday night matchup between the Rams and rival San Francisco 49ers, from Melbourne, Australia. L.A. is also on Netflix for the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game — Rams hosting the Green Bay Packers — and the Rams will visit the rival Seattle Seahawks on Christmas Day as well on the service.

There has been intent to do this sort of thing before: Last year’s Chiefs schedule was heavy on holidays and got some of the Netflix treatment as well. But the Rams’ emphasis on non-Sunday afternoon games and streaming indicates a larger strategy to leverage one of the league’s top teams (in one of its top markets) to encourage a change in behavior toward more streaming viewing,

What Investigation?

The NFL’s streaming aspirations are not going unnoticed. In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Justice Department was opening up an investigation into the league and whether it had engaged in anticompetitive tactics in pursuit of increased TV rights fees (which are now forcing consumers to subscribe to more streaming services in order to tune in).

Whether the league is taking the claims seriously or not, this season’s streaming plans are still continuing as planned, albeit on a more potentially expensive note for consumers.

Key in this year’s increased streaming footprint were a series of games optioned over to YouTube. Those would’ve been free to watch, much like broadcast, and at least provided the NFL with some sort of pushback on the “too expensive” narrative.

But when that fell through, Netflix scooped up some of that inventory and the rest was grabbed by existing TV partners.

Ultimately, the NFL did “try” to alleviate some of the concerns, even if not consciously. But either way, it would’ve been (and remains) difficult to claim that the NFL is avoiding a streaming-first approach now, as it tries to win the race to traditional TV’s cliff.