NFL Rights Deals: NBC Retains Sunday Night Football, Will Also Stream on Peacock

NBCUniversal and the NFL announced today an 11-year extension and expansion for NBC Sports to continue as the home of Sunday Night Football, primetime television’s No. 1 show for an unprecedented 10 consecutive years. With the new agreement, which begins with the 2023 NFL season, NBC and Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, will present Sunday Night Football through 2033 — a span of 28 seasons for NBC as the home of the NFL’s premier primetime package (since its 2006 debut).

In addition, beginning with the upcoming 2021 season, Peacock will stream all NBC Sunday Night Football games and the Football Night in America studio show. Peacock will also produce a new exclusive, expanded postgame show following SNF each week.

NBC Sports, which produced the first-ever NFL broadcast on Oct. 22, 1939, (Philadelphia Eagles–Brooklyn Dodgers from Ebbets Field), will present four of the next 13 Super Bowls, including three as part of the new agreement. Besides the upcoming Super Bowl LVI from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in February 2022, NBC and Peacock will broadcast and stream Super Bowls in February 2026, February 2030, and February 2034. NBC Sports’ presentation of Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015 is the most-watched show in U.S. television history (114.4 million viewers on NBC).

In each of the next 13 seasons, NBC will broadcast a Divisional Playoff game. In addition, it will televise two Wild Card games during the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2026, and 2031 seasons, with a single Wild Card telecast in all other seasons. In each of the next seven seasons, NBC will broadcast a Sunday primetime Wild Card game. All NBC NFL postseason games will stream live on Peacock.

The streaming service will also serve as the exclusive national home of six NFL regular-season games, one each year from 2023 to ’28 (giving NBC Sports an additional regular-season game in those seasons). Peacock will launch a virtual NFL channel, highlighting classic games as well as NFL Films’ series, library, and archival content — all available on demand. NBC Sports will have the option to incorporate enhanced and interactive features in game presentations streamed live on NBC digital platforms, including Peacock.

“We are excited to expand upon our relationship with the NFL, which is the most powerful content in sports and entertainment,” says Pete Bevacqua, chairman, NBC Sports Group. “Sunday Night Football has been television’s most-watched primetime show for a decade, and we look forward to continuing our best-in-class presentation of SNF, Super Bowls, and playoff games for many years to come, while also broadening our audience with Peacock becoming the live-streaming home for all NBC NFL games.”

Says NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, “Comcast and the NBC family have been outstanding partners for us, and we are excited to continue that relationship long into the future. Sunday Night Football is firmly established as the No. 1 show in primetime television, and we are looking forward to working with NBC and Peacock to continue to bring the NFL to more fans in more ways than ever before.”

NBC Sports will continue its tradition of opening each season with the NFL Kickoff Game, as the first regular-season game in the Sunday Night Football package, which also includes the Thanksgiving primetime game. The NFL’s flexible scheduling for SNF, which was instituted in 2006, will begin in Week 5 each season.

Each NFL Sunday on NBC will once again begin with Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports in every year since its 2006 debut.

Telemundo Deportes, the U.S. destination for the biggest global sports events broadcast in Spanish, will present all NBC NFL games on television in Spanish beginning in 2023; they will also be available to be live-streamed on Peacock.

This long-term agreement can be terminated on a one-time basis by the NFL after seven years.

In January, NBC concluded its 15th season of Sunday Night Football, topping all primetime television series in the fall and once again pacing to finish as primetime’s No. 1 TV show in all key metrics for an unprecedented 10th consecutive year. NBC’s SNF extended its record for the most consecutive years atop the charts (since 1950), based on official live-plus-same-day data provided by Nielsen.

Top-Ranked Shows in Primetime Since 1950
10 years in a row — Sunday Night Football (2011-12 through 2020-21; on pace)
6 years in a row — American Idol (2005-06 through 2010-11)
5 years in a row — The Cosby Show (1985-86 through 1989-90); tied Cheers in ‘89-90
5 years in a row – All in the Family (1971-72 through 1975-76)
4 years in a row – Gunsmoke (1957-58 through 1960-61)