They were the two main attractions in the sports world on Christmas Day and neither of them disappointed. Although tradition indicates that the NBA is the protagonist of this important date, with the best possible games being played on December 25, this year all the attention was stolen by the NFL with the presence of two games throughout the day which were broadcast exclusively by Netflix.
The American platform and the American football league reached a historic agreement whereby the matches between Kansas City Chiefs – Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans – Baltimore Ravens would be seen through Netflix streaming in exchange for paying 150 million dollars, 75 for each match. The strategy, which was risky to say the least, ended up being highly positive for both parties, with both matches being the most watched of the day.
Kansas City-Pittsburgh and Texans-RavensBRAND MOUNT
A big difference
As Netflix has made public through its 24 million viewers in each of the matches.
This figure, in comparison with the audience data of the NBA, which had five games in total and between them they added 26 million viewers on average, shows the great impact of the NFL, which also featured Beyoncé’s performance in the break of the Texans-Ravens, before an NBA that registered the highest number of spectators on Christmas Day for five years and exceeding last year’s data by 84%.
Disney comes to the NBA
One of the main novelties that the best basketball league in the world presented with the help of Adam Silver on Christmas Day was to include among the multiple broadcasts the option of watching the game between the Knicks and the Spurs as if the players were from the ‘ Disney World’ and with Donald Duck as one of the stars of the night.
This strategy, which occurred after this past summer both the NBA, Disney and ESPN reached an agreement to extend the league’s television rights for 11 more years, was very successful and, in fact, became one of the moments most commented on by viewers on social networks.
The ‘war’ between the NBA and the NFL, far from being settled once the games have finished, is more alive than ever and, in fact, LeBron James, after finishing his match against the Warriors, assured that “Christmas Day is ours ( of the NBA) day”. Tradition agrees with the Lakers star, but nothing could be further from the truth, the basketball league cannot be distracted by the rise of a competitor as fierce as the NFL, which this year has practically tripled the NBA in figures.
