Peaky Blinders promo on Netflix NFL Christmas GameDay Credit: Netflix
By Brendon Kleen on

When Netflix recently reached an agreement to acquire Warner Bros., one of the more compelling reasons the streamer would want to buy a legacy film and television studio was the vast intellectual property it would gain.

But while the DC superheroes, Harry Potter, and Cartoon Network are supremely valuable, Netflix isn’t waiting to get those historic brands before it showcases its own. With this year’s NFL Christmas GameDay doubleheader, the streamer tapped into its growing library of big-time characters during its studio programming, halftime shows, and even in-game promos. While families watched with their hot cocoa and holiday ham, Netflix finally showed how it plans to pair its growing library of big live sports events with all the other shows and movies under its massive umbrella.

It helps to have a recognizable host like Kay Adams to welcome fans in. With Adams anchoring the studio once again from Washington, D.C., viewers recognized her either as a longtime NFL Network and FanDuel host or from the Paul vs. Joshua fight. Going forward, Adams and Elle Duncan figure to be the consistent faces of Netflix’s sports vertical. Continuity goes a long way; same with ESPN and Scott Van Pelt or NBC and Maria Taylor.

Out in Minneapolis, where Jamie Erdahl was hosting for Vikings-Lions, viewers were treated to another piece of Netflix brand-building when WWE superstar Seth Rollins joined the desk to break down the game. The six-time world champion appears on the platform live each Monday night on Raw and doubles as an analyst on NFL Network. The guy knows ball.

At halftime of that Vikings-Lions game, we saw the most overt insertion of Netflix IP into the NFL festivities, when the artists behind the fictional musical group Huntr/x, from K-Pop Demon Hunters, joined Snoop Dogg onstage to sing “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

Contrast this with Netflix’s initial foray into the NFL Christmas bonanza in 2024, when it produced an artful performance by Beyoncé. In fairness, Netflix released Beyoncé’s famed “Beychella” show in 2019. But the Houston concert last December looked more like something you might find on the soon-to-be-Netflix-owned HBO Max than on a tile next to Is it Cake?

If Netflix were a little earlier to the live sports game, you can bet the streamer would have offered Kate Bush a boatload to perform “Running Up That Hill” after the fourth season of Stranger Things propelled it to the top of the charts in 2022. Halftime is an obvious place to insert musical acts that resonate with Netflix’s faithful.

As with the Beyoncé show, Netflix has already uploaded the Snoop Dogg/Huntr/x/Lainey Wilson performance as its own “special” on the app.

Perhaps the most interesting deployment of Netflix IP was the on-air promos in Minneapolis. The streamer loaded commercial breaks all day with ads for its original content, but brought in the big guns for in-stadium activations to bring attention to two of its most high-profile upcoming releases.

During the opener in Washington, announcer Ian Eagle was in shock as the cameras zoomed into a cluster of “Elevens” in the stands. Don’t miss the series finale of Stranger Things, out next week!

Eagle even delivered a goofy joke likening the broadcast team to a grown-up version of the Stranger Things kids.

Netflix paid for a field-side suite at U.S. Bank Stadium, then decked it out to look like early-20th-century Great Britain to draw attention toward the Peaky Blinders movie set to be released in March.

And during the same game, announcer Noah Eagle spotlighted six large, muscular men in sunglasses with the acronym “AWTGG?” painted upon their chests in the second level of the stadium. They weren’t sneaky Denver Broncos fans but rather paid actors who were there solely to be used as promo for The Rip, a Netflix original movie due in mid-January.

Advertising other content under the same corporate umbrella during sporting events is hardly novel. Sports deliver the largest audience; not redirecting viewers to other movies and shows would be a waste. However, Netflix places a premium on major events such as Christmas Day. So it is clearly trying to match the scale of its promotion to the scale of the sporting events it pursues.

With the Home Run Derby, more Zuffa Boxing matches, and the Women’s World Cup on the horizon, think of the possibilities for cross-promotion and spectacle around other Netflix content going forward.

Later that night, Amazon’s Thursday Night Football broadcast signaled another direction for how sports will be watched on streaming going forward. Commercial breaks on Prime Video now feature on-screen prompts to click for a product link, or to make the purchase directly by pressing our remotes.

Amazon is using live sports to support its core e-commerce business and Prime subscription service. In turn, Netflix is learning to leverage the major sports events it pays to broadcast to drive engagement across its entire content portfolio.

Not everything about Netflix’s NFL presentation this year landed. And this isn’t even about whether the halftime show worked or whether The Rip will be a good movie. What was important about NFL Christmas GameDay this year was that it was a crystal ball for how it will feel to watch sports in the streaming age.

Across television, we still see the remnants of a similar strategy from the days when broadcast and cable TV ruled. Hopefully, everyone by now has noticed the pattern of NBC television stars and Universal filmmakers joining SNL or The Tonight Show. It is in the best interest of corporate bosses to use their promotional machines to grow the business.

Without vehicles such as late-night television or daytime general-interest shows to do this, streamers take a different approach. And until recently, none of them had big enough portfolios to make the machine whir realistically.

As with most cases, live shows and specifically sports are the place to do it. And with Netflix’s biggest foray into live sports, we now have a clearer sense of how the streamer will use those events to connect its content and showcase its brand.

About Brendon Kleen

Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.

View all posts by Brendon Kleen