If you were upset that the Chiefs Dolphins game this Saturday was on Peacock, you are not alone.
From confusion as to how to get the app and sign in to just being used to watching NFL games on basic network television, the change of broadcasting venue caused much consternation over the weekend as evidenced by the X feeds related to the game.
Was the move a mistake for the NFL and NBC Universal? From a basic satisfaction level of the customers certainly. But both entities know that there will be no penalty for this. Because next year people will want to watch football whether they’re angry about how one wild card game over the weekend went or not.
It should be noted that the game was on NBC affiliates in the Miami and Kansas City media markets. But overall the rest of the country was streaming on Peacock and NBC reaped the benefits with the most streamed football game up to this point even surpassing the last time the Super Bowl was streamed. It should be no surprise that it got more streams than the Super Bowl because the Super Bowl wasn’t exclusive to streaming meaning most people were probably watching it on network TV the traditional way.
But probably more important to NBC / Peacock is that this during the weekend ahead of the game Peacock was the number one app in all of the App Store platforms.
The customers who signed up may well just cancel immediately. They might though, decide to hold on to Peacock for a little while. Maybe they are also WWE fans who will hold on to watch the upcoming Royal Rumble premium live event. Or based on the huge popularity of the show in general there might be office fans who decide to dive back in with an old favorite thus keeping the app around.
Companies know that the easiest way to keep a customer is basically to have them kind of forget about the bill. Unless somebody sees a $4.99 charge as a deal breaker, they might find that they use the features just enough to justify it or like I said not make them so upset that they make a point to cancel it. Because they have really been meaning to watch…
So based on Peacock’s success NFL fans had better be ready for more of this kind of thing over the next couple of years. Fox might throw something on Tubi, Paramount may drop a game on to Paramount+ exclusively. Is this easy for everybody? No but if it makes more money than it does cost them through upset fans it will definitely happen again.
