SoccerRecap
Back on? Man City extend title race with necessary Palace win
Man City extends title race with a crucial 3-0 win over Palace!
Sky Sports1 min read
NFL
NFL schedule release: Netflix to air 5 regular-season games, NFL Honors ceremony in 2026
TL;DR
Netflix will air five regular-season NFL games and the NFL Honors ceremony in 2026, expanding its previous offerings. This marks a significant increase from the two games it aired on Christmas Day in 2024 and 2025.
Key points
- Netflix will air five regular-season NFL games in 2026.
- The platform will also broadcast the NFL Honors ceremony.
- This is an expansion from two games aired in 2024 and 2025.
Netflix is continuing its trend of getting more involved with live sports.
The streaming giant will now air five regular-season games, more than doubling its previous output. It doesn’t stop there. While not an extra game, the platform will now also be in charge of broadcasting NFL Honors during Super Bowl week in February.
Netflix first partnered with the NFL in 2024, airing two games on Christmas Day. This schedule was repeated in 2025, but is expanding for the 2026 season.
The NFL has given Netflix five regular-season games, but don’t worry, they won’t be all on Christmas Day.
Netflix will air the league’s season opener in Australia between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, the Green Bay Packers taking on the Rams in the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game, two games on Christmas, and now a Week 18 game, presumably with playoff stakes.
This is quite the expansion for the platform, but it doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise for those who have been following recent broadcasting trends.
Play 2026 Soccer Pick 'Em with FOX One and make your picks for the world's biggest soccer tournament
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Jori Epstein highlighted Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria in a profile on “25 Game Changers to watch in 2025,” with Robinson expecting Netflix to up its NFL catalog sooner rather than later:
“Six or seven years ago, if you took a poll of owners and some of the top media rights executives asking who would be the next 800-pound gorilla at the table, everyone would have said Amazon. I bet you it would have been 100 percent Amazon. Now I think a lot of those responses would be Netflix.”
The games were open to claim by Netflix because the ESPN-NFL Network merger made some of the broadcast rights for ESPN’s Monday night doubleheader up for grabs as part of the deal.
Netflix is reportedly spending a premium to add these slots to its platform. Bloomberg analyst Raveeno Douglas estimates that this package of five games and the NFL Honors show could be running Netflix around $500 million, which would amount to 2.5% of the company’s $20 billion content budget.
After the announcement of the expansion, NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder commented on the agreement.
“We’ve seen how many fans are already on Netflix, so we thought it was a tremendous opportunity to deepen the partnership, expand the reach of those games, and to do so around tentpole events at the beginning and end of the year with big holidays in the middle, then have them extend into honors and do what Netflix has shown they do so well, which is make big events even bigger.”
The full schedule, including the matchup reveals for the two Christmas Day games, will take place on Thursday, May 14, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Q&A
What NFL games will Netflix air in 2026?
Netflix will air five regular-season NFL games in 2026, although specific matchups have not yet been announced.
When will the NFL Honors ceremony be broadcast on Netflix?
The NFL Honors ceremony will be broadcast on Netflix during Super Bowl week in February 2026.
How did Netflix's NFL partnership evolve since 2024?
Netflix first partnered with the NFL in 2024 by airing two games on Christmas Day, which was repeated in 2025, and is now expanding to five games in 2026.
