Report: NFL To Auction Media Rights For Christmas Day Games

The NFL is poised to auction off TV rights to its two new Christmas Day games for the 2024 season, reports Front Office Sports citing sources with direct knowledge of the strategy, with bidding likely to start in the $50 million range.

The league plans to open the bidding to all of its media partners, say sources, including CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN-ABC, and Amazon Prime Video. Collectively, these media giants will pay the NFL $110 billion through 2033.

Andrew Brandt, the former Packers executive turned consultant, estimates the Christmas Day games could end up selling for a 20% to 25% increase over the Black Friday game, which averaged 9.61 million viewers. 

The NFL typically “exceeds expectations” when it comes to media deals, notes John Kosner, the former ESPN executive. He thinks the new Christmas Day games could sell for $75 million to $100 million apiece.

“The premium prices have come for exclusive streaming rights to NFL playoff games,” Kosner says. “NFL Christmas Day/night games have huge and growing audiences—but they are regular-season games scheduled seven months in advance. And traditionally the ad market for Christmas Day is not as robust.”

The NFL’s Christmas Day tripleheader in 2023 generated record TV audience last season. CBS drew an average of 29.6 million viewers for an early-afternoon game between the Chiefs and Raiders. Fox drew 29 million for its late-afternoon broadcast of Giants-Eagles, and ESPN pulled 27.1 million for a prime-time Ravens-49ers game. Those figures dwarfed the average audience of 2.86 million for the NBA’s five competing Christmas Day games.