NFL on Peacock: Football fans furious over NBC's plans to show 2023 playoff game exclusively on streaming service

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NFL Wild Card Ronda de Comodines
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The streaming wars have found a new ally — the NFL. 

Major sports like the NFL have often been considered one of the last things that could unite people around cable. Issues surrounding latency and availability have made cord cutting a difficult, and expensive, task for sports fans. As it stands, the league is already going to air at least one game exclusively on Amazon Prime, ESPN+ and the new home for NFL Sunday Ticket — YouTube TV.

On Monday, the league took it a step further, announcing a partnership with Peacock — NBC's streaming platform — to broadcast an NFL playoff game on Super Wild Card Weekend. According to the Wall Street Journal, the two sides struck a one-year deal worth $110 million to broadcast this one game exclusively. 

MORE: Full list of Thursday, Sunday and Monday prime-time NFL games in 2023

That gives NBC three games during the NFL playoffs opening weekend — with two of them being available on broadcast TV. While many fans are outraged at the idea, the two participating markets will still be able to watch the playoff contest on their local NBC station. 

The news comes less than a week after the league awarded Peacock exclusive rights to the Bills vs. Chargers Week 16 contest. 

As expected, fans aren't taking the news well:

MORE: The best (and worst) prime-time games on the 2023 NFL schedule

What is Peacock?

Peacock is an NBCUniversal-owned streaming service that launched in July 2020. The service is home to many NBC shows and originals, along with some exclusive sports rights.

Peacock, named after the NBC logo, is perhaps best known for being the home of many English Premier League matches in the United States, along with the PGA Tour, WWE, "MLB Sunday Leadoff," NFL and Olympic Games. 

Why is the NFL streaming a playoff game on Peacock?

Like most things, the answer comes down to money. Plenty of fans will tune into the NFL no matter where they have to go in order to watch. Before the 2022 season, fans said they wouldn't pay to watch "Thursday Night Football" on Prime Video, but they did. 

As long as the NFL remains a powerhouse in the sports world, fans will continue to watch. In this case, they saw an opportunity to bring in even more revenue for a single game — $110 million, to be exact — and took advantage of it. 

MORE: Best and worst NFL schedule announcements

Is Peacock free?

Unfortunately, unlike the other best things in life — Peacock is not free, which means you'll need to pony up some of that hard-earned cash to catch the Super Wild Card Weekend exclusive. On the bright side, Peacock is one of the cheaper streaming services around which means you'd only have to part with $4.99 in order to enjoy watching the action. 

The service comes with two options — $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year for the "Premium" package or you could instead opt for the "Plus" package, which is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. The "Plus" package is ad-free, while "Premium" is not, but both come with the same selection of shows and sports. 

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Nick Brinkerhoff Photo

Nick Brinkerhoff is an editorial intern at The Sporting News.