NBC Sports Acquires Extra NFL Game, Giving It 3 Telecasts In Season’s Final Weekend

(Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

NBC Sports has acquired an additional regular-season NFL game outside of its Sunday Night Football package and will stream it exclusively on Peacock.

The Week 17 game will be played at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 2. With an exclusive Peacock game to follow that night, and then Sunday Night Football on the next evening, NBCUniversal will have three prime slots in the season’s final weekend. The media company is rooting for a finish like last season’s, when the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers faced off on Sunday night with a spot in the playoffs on the line.

More from Deadline

• 'Fast & Furious' TV Series In Works At Peacock With Vin Diesel Executive Producing
• 'The Paper' Season 2, 'Crystal Lake' & 'The Good Daughter' Release Dates Set At Peacock
• Matt Bomer Joins 'The Day Of The Jackal' Season 2

The acquisition was announced at the NBC upfront, on the same day that Fox separately announced it was taking rights to two additional regular-season games. NBCU and other NFL rights holders are facing a new round of negotiations with the league, which is set to opt out of its existing deals before they elapse in 2033. Re-upping with the NFL is likely to cost media companies significant sums, with reports pegging the extra expense for CBS parent Paramount Skydance at $1 billion.

The last time NBCU added a game was in 2024, but that was a playoff game heading to Peacock. Given the higher ratings for the playoffs, that game fetched a reported $100 million. That Dolphins-Kansas City contest delivered a then-record streaming audience. The Week 17 transaction is a far less pricey move.