Saturday night’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers already carried significance as the first NFL game to be exclusively streamed on Peacock. The matchup will also feature another milestone as NBC and the NFL announced Thursday morning that the fourth quarter will be commercial free for the first time.
Quick Read
- Historic NFL Game on Peacock: The upcoming Buffalo Bills vs. Los Angeles Chargers game will be the first NFL game exclusively streamed on Peacock.
- Milestone in Broadcasting: NBC and the NFL have announced that the fourth quarter of the game will be commercial-free, a first in NFL broadcasting.
- Reduction in Ad Time: NBCUniversal plans to cut the standard ad time by 40% for this NFL game, providing more game-related content.
- Game Presentation Plans: Rob Hyland, NBC’s coordinating producer, has been planning since June to make this broadcast unique, with limited stoppages offering more opportunities for in-depth game coverage.
- Special Segments in Fourth Quarter: The limited commercial breaks will include special segments featuring the announce team and the “Football Night in America” studio team discussing game storylines and Week 16 games.
- Hyland’s Experience with Limited Commercials: Hyland brings experience from producing events with few or no commercial breaks, like NBC’s Olympics coverage.
- Sponsors for Commercial-Free Quarter: Capital One, Hyundai, and Walmart will sponsor the commercial-free fourth quarter.
- Lead-in Audience Strategy: The game is scheduled after the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game on NBC, expected to boost viewership.
- Additional Games on Peacock: Along with this game, Peacock will also stream a wild-card playoff game in January, following an NBC afternoon broadcast.
- Broadcast Accessibility: Games on Peacock will also be broadcast on NBC affiliates in the teams’ markets, similar to Amazon Prime Video games.
- Ratings Expectations: While no specific ratings predictions have been set for the Peacock game, Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” has seen a significant viewership increase this season.
The Associated Press has the story:
Saturday night’s Bills-Chargers game won’t have commercials during Q4
Newslooks- (AP)
Saturday night’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers already carried significance as the first NFL game to be exclusively streamed on Peacock.
The matchup will also feature another milestone as NBC and the NFL announced Thursday morning that the fourth quarter will be commercial free for the first time.
NBCUniversal says there will be a 40% reduction in the standard ad time for an NFL game which should result in at least 12 additional minutes of game-related content.
Rob Hyland, the coordinating producer for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” said there have been discussions about this game since June about how to make it unique and distinct from a regular NBC broadcast.
“The limited stoppages are exciting for me as someone that wants to tell the story of the game and have the time to do it,” he said.
During one of the two breaks of 2 minutes, 20 seconds, in the fourth quarter, the announce team of Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark will delve more into some of the game’s storylines. The other will go to the “Football Night in America” studio team for their thoughts on the game as well as the upcoming slate of games for the remainder of Week 16.
Hyland is used to producing events with limited or no commercial breaks as one of the lead producers for NBC’s Olympics coverage in prime time.
The commercial-free quarter will be sponsored by Capital One, Hyundai and Walmart.
Saturday’s game on Peacock will be preceded by the matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers on NBC, which should help deliver a better lead-in audience.
That will be the same case on Jan. 13, when NBC will carry the afternoon wild-card playoff game and Peacock will have the night game.
Games on Peacock will be broadcast on the NBC affiliates in the two team markets, which is the same case for games on Amazon Prime Video.
NBC and Peacock haven’t tried to set any ratings predictions, but it is worth noting that the “Thursday Night Football” package on Amazon is averaging 12.07 million viewers this season, a 26% increase over last year.
Last Thursday’s game between the Chargers and Raiders, where Las Vegas had a 42-0 lead at halftime en route to a 63-21 victory, averaged 7.98 million.
