Netflix executives have long argued that while the company loves sports programming, it can’t justify spending the money necessary in order to win live sports rights for an entire season of any major league. So instead, it has opted for a series of sports-centric documentaries, as well as a select number of specific live “events.”
During its upfront presentation to advertisers on Wednesday, Netflix a number of new projects, including several new NFL live broadcasts that will begin streaming this fall.
Under Netflix and the NFL’s four-year partnership extension through the 2029-2030 season, Netflix will stream a week one game, a Thanksgiving Eve match-up, one Christmas Day game, a week eighteen regular season finale game, and the NFL Honors.
Week one of the upcoming NFL season will feature the league’s first-ever regular season game in Australia on Thursday, September 10th – between division rivals the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers – that will air on Netflix live from the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Netflix will also add the NFL’s first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game on Wednesday, November 25th to its lineup, featuring the Green Bay Packers visiting the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium.
Netflix will once again air two games on Friday, December 25th at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT and 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. PT. Last year, Netflix’s Christmas Day broadcast of the Detroit Lions versus the Minnesota Vikings was the most-streamed NFL regular season game in US history.
New for this NFL season is a weekend eighteen game on Netflix at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT on Saturday, January 9th, the final weekend of the regular season.
Netflix’s NFL games in 2026 will be available in over 200 countries around the world. And in what I suspect is a move to quiet complaints about sporting events moving to streaming, these games will also be available on local, over-the-air broadcast television in the respective team markets.
Netflix also announced several additional documentary and unscripted programs that are connected in some way to the NFL. The documentary series Quarterback returns for a new season on Tuesday, July 14th, this time featuring Jayden Daniels, Baker Mayfield, Cam Ward, and Joe Flacco.
There will be another season of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
