Netflix said it has struck a deal to have CBS Sports produce the two National Football League games the streamer is carrying this Christmas.
The Wall Street Journal reports the one-year deal with CBS Sports is for the production of the games only and doesn’t include the on-air talent that will call the two games, which will be decided later.
That doesn’t mean that popular CBS announcers Tony Romo and Jim Nantz won’t be asked to call one of the two games. Netflix, however, may also opt to go in a different direction in an effort to put its own stamp on the games, a person familiar with the companies’ thinking said.
Under the terms of the deal, CBS will receive a production fee for the two games, as well as promotional spots in Netflix’s streaming of the games for its own programming, the person said. CBS is a unit of Paramount Global.
CBS will also have advertising inventory in the broadcast coverage of the games in the local markets of the competing teams. Per NFL rules, games that are streamed or on cable must be made available via local over-the-air television in the cities of the teams that are playing.
Netflix’s contract with the NFL is for Christmas games over the next three seasons. This year, the games are a matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers, followed by a game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans.
CBS and Netflix have long ties. Besides selling library content to Netflix such as “NCIS” and more recently “Your Honor,” the TV studios of CBS and Paramount have also produced the original hit shows for Netflix “Dead to Me” and “13 Reasons Why.” In addition, George Cheeks, co-Chief Executive Officer of Paramount Global and head of CBS, and Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria were colleagues at NBCUniversal.
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