Peacock Streaming Service Slammed for ‘Bait-and-Switch’ Exclusive NFL Playoff Game

Both the NFL and NBC are in the hot seat as they made the controversial decision to show the Dolphins vs. Chiefs wild-card playoff game on January 13, 2024, exclusively on the membership-only streaming site Peacock.

Before diving into the current debate, it’s first important to understand how NFL games are typically broadcasted.

But NBC essentially decided to take some of its allotted games and make them exclusively available on Peacock, the company’s membership-only streaming site. 

It’s important to note that while it may feel as though NFL games are free to watch, Americans are paying for the channels such as CBS, NBC, and ESPN, every month through their cable provider.

No one may be as upset as congressman Pat Ryan, who called out NBC and the NFL in a letter he addressed to Roger Goodell and Rick Cordella, the commissioner and president respectively.

Ryan continued on the letter, which he shared on his X page, “This bait-and-switch is particularly egregious for consumers who already pay for NBC as part of their cable package. Since Peacock is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, this exclusive deal essentially double-charges loyal fans to watch games they thought they had already paid for.”

At the end of Ryan’s scathing letter, he wrote, “I’m requesting that you offer the game on broadcast television, end the exclusive and exploitative streaming deals for good, and commit to making games accessible for fans to watch throughout the season.”

While Pat Ryan’s letter is making headline news around the country, he’s not the only politician who believes that the NFL’s broadcasting situation is out of control. 

Even one of the Chiefs’ players, Charles Omenihu, took to social media to express his shock in NBC’s decision to only play the game on Peacock. 

Of course, making games exclusively available on NBCUniversal means NFL fans will have to subscribe, and therefore, increase the company’s revenue stream.

Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFl, hasn’t publicly responded to Pat Ryan’s letter or the general frustrations of the fans and even players regarding the issue. 

Whether or not Pat Ryan’s letter will actually make a difference in how the NFL and its networks offer games is yet to be seen. 

This controversy comes in the midst of a huge change with both players and fans of the sport. In 2020, Forbes reported on the accelerating decline of football, citing declining numbers of Super Bowl viewers, youth participation, and lower-level game attendance. 

In 2023, the Washington Post reported that in 2006 over 1.1 million boys were playing football. Since then, participation in the sport has dropped by 17 percent. This drop is more than any other of the top 10 major sports played in America.

As the number of young participants decreased, it caused a shift in the format of the game. 11-player teams are more difficult to get enough players for, so smaller team formats have been more popular. 

Football participation is suffering for a variety of reasons. Recent fears of the health risks of the sport have dissuaded parents from signing up their kids at an early age. 

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) presents a real risk to young athletes, especially in football. The National Institutes of Health reported in 2023 that 40% of contact sports players who died before the age of 30 had CTE.

Despite attempts in recent years for the NFL to try to reduce the harm the sport has on players, the statistics have not given people signs of hope. ESPN reported that in 2022, the NFL saw a huge 18% jump in concussions from the previous year. 

Sports enthusiasts observed a team sport participation decline that they were expecting after the United States locked down after the pandemic. They also expected those numbers to bounce back in a big way after things recovered.

An Aspen Institute report from 2021 showed that kids are much more likely now than before to lose interest in their primary sport. 

So if kids aren’t playing sports, what are they doing with their time? Unfortunately, many of these kids have picked up unhealthy habits from their time in pandemic isolation.

While the worst days of the COVID-19 epidemic seem behind us, we have traded one epidemic for another. An increasing health problem in the United States is childhood obesity, which is set to rise to historic levels. 

American parents are in a tough position between two extremes of outcomes for their child’s health. If they allow their child to participate in team sports, they may have better outcomes for obesity, but risk developing concussions or other injuries from sports like football that can hurt their quality of life.

The NFL is well aware of these issues and how they will affect the future of the sport. In 2022, the NFL made efforts to invest more than $2 million to support high school football and youth programs, according to USA Today.