Fuck Peacock And The NFL For Being So Greedy

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Roger Goodell and the NFL has managed to somehow outdo themselves. The NFL, who made $18 billion dollars in revenue in 2022 now feels the need to squeeze their fans out of an extra $6 for the privilege of watching the Dolphins/Chiefs game. It's a wild overreach for a league that has never made people watch a streaming service for a playoff game before. What is even crazier is that it's not a streaming service that fans have been using this season like Amazon Prime. There has been only one other NFL game on Peacock this year. 

It's a pretty shitty level of greed that reminds all of us how little these sports leagues care about fans. They know they are being money hungry here because they are allowing the Miami and Kansas City local markets to view the games on local tv affiliates. Are you a Chiefs who lives out of market? Fuck you. Pay them. Dolphins fan not in Miami? Fuck you. Pay them. Root for the NFL and watch every week? Fuck you. Pay them.

Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.

The NFL isn't the first league to have games on various streaming services. Major League Baseball has exclusive regular season games on Apple+ and on Peacock. But they haven't put a playoff game behind this wall. The NFL obviously put the Thursday Night Games on Amazon Prime Video. If they had put a playoff game there, I'd say it was shitty but at least it's something we've been doing for awhile. Using a playoff game as a tool to boost up a poorly performing streaming service is a level of greed we haven't seen before as sports fans.

I do wonder if this is a bridge too far. Fans already seem pissed:

Of course, they put the Chiefs game in this Peacock slot. It's not enough to squeeze cash out of NFL fans. They are going after Swifties too. By the way, this is EXACTLY why NBC isn't having Al Micheals work this game. He wasn't excited enough about Taylor Swift watching the game the last time the Chiefs were on Amazon Prime. NBC had promised Michaels he could do one playoff game a year and they bounced him out of this slot this season (which he found out through the media).  

The NFL product is rightfully beloved by sports fans. It dominates everything on TV. 

It's the biggest thing on television and the one sport that brings people together. With entertainment so segmented nowadays, it might be the last thing we all watch as a country. So why put one of the biggest games on something a large majority of Americans don't have?

SOURCE - Peacock is closing out 2023 with some good news: The Comcast-owned streaming service has reached 30 million paid subscribers.

Additionally, according to Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh, the platform saw $2.8 billion in losses this year (coming in under the $3 billion projected by the company back in January), and Cavanagh expects that figure to be the peak loss for Peacock heading into 2024.

30 million people may sound like a lot. But there are 340 million Americans. 91% of people in this country don't have Peacock. Statistically speaking, no one has Peacock. 

It's not about the $6/month. It's the principle. They even offer a free trial but I don't feel like giving my billing information to this failing streaming service that lost $3 billion fucking dollars last year. I do love that the confidence that the CEO has that they won't lose more than $3 billion next year. Everyone needs goals.

I fear this is the tip of the iceberg. Instead of being this world where we cut the cord of cable and saved money, they gouge us with a zillion different streaming services that the pro sports leagues use to bid against each other who then pass those charges onto us. This obviously won't be the last playoff game some league puts on a streaming service. It puts fans in an impossible spot. Either miss a playoff game which we all look forward to each year or pay for a service 91% of us don't want. If we buy this en masse, this will keep happening.

There is one lesson here. There is no amount of money that is ever enough for the NFL. We buy this game and it'll be another playoff game on a different streaming service a couple years from now. Keep in mind, this was a league that just made $2 billion dollars this season alone from moving Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV. It will never be enough. The NFL is a star that can't stop feeding.

Fuck Peacock. Fuck NBC. Fuck the NFL.