NFL to split former ‘Monday Night Football’ doubleheaders between YouTube, Netflix, per report

Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The NFL is reportedly set to release its schedule on Wednesday or Thursday of next week, and we’re now receiving a bit of clarity (and confusion) about where some of these games will land next season.

Among the mystery games currently without a broadcast home are the four former Monday Night Football doubleheaders that ESPN returned to the NFL as part of its deal to acquire NFL Network earlier this year. Those games are now unaccounted for, and the conventional wisdom has been that the league will likely sell them to a streamer, or, as it now appears, streamers.

According to a report by Alex Sherman of CNBC on Thursday, the NFL plans to divvy up those games between YouTube and Netflix. The news comes amid separate reports suggesting YouTube is in line to land a five-game package, and that Netflix is interested in expanding its NFL package beyond its two Christmas Day games. 2026 is the final year of a three-year pact between Netflix and the NFL, and the streamer is reportedly interested in renewing the deal.

The idea that the NFL wants to sell more games to streamers is nothing new. But what makes this report especially interesting is that the NFL plans to increase its broadcast footprint this season as compared to last. About 87% of NFL games aired on broadcast networks last season, and the league expects that number to increase slightly this year, per Sherman.

But it would seem that if both YouTube and Netflix are positioned to land “mini-packages” of between four and five games, that necessarily requires fewer games be allocated to broadcast networks. Let’s say the NFL sells nine games total between YouTube and Netflix. Four of those games would be the former  doubleheaders, while two are the Christmas Day games already allocated to Netflix. That still leaves three additional games the NFL would need to carve out, presumably from its linear partners, to fill these packages.