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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏀 NBA 1, NFL 0. The viewership will likely tell a different story, but if you watched sports studio shows last Friday, the NBA came out on top of its Christmas Day duel with the NFL. Across ESPN and FS1, the NBA got the lion’s share of the coverage for its juicy five-game slate on ABC compared with the NFL’s injury-riddled tripleheader on Netflix and Prime Video.

🏈 Ryan back to A-Town? Former Atlanta Falcons QB turned CBS Sports analyst Matt Ryan is apparently in talks to return to the franchise in what Fox’s Jay Glazer called a “significant role in the front office.” Given how Ryan blossomed on NFL Today studio and has remained committed to the studio role, it would be a big blow for the network.

🔴 Netflix streaming problems. Many viewers online reported latency and quality issues for the stream of Netflix’s NFL Christmas GameDay. Live streaming is susceptible to issues on the distribution and viewing ends even on the best days, but Netflix appears to struggle more consistently than its more established competitors in live digital video.

📺 Christmas Chuck. In his first NBA Christmas on-air in more than a decade, Charles Barkley used the all-day Inside the NBA marathon to call out the NFL for infringing on the holiday. Barkley called the NFL “greedy” and league leadership “pigs” for the constant expansion of the schedule.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

What Super Bowl matchup do the suits want?

The last time we had a Super Bowl with no Kansas City Chiefs and no Tom Brady, in 2022, viewership for the big game was at a decade low (excluding the COVID season).

Next February in Santa Clara, the NFL and NBC will be in for another such Super Bowl. Even with the understanding that any drop in ratings will be incremental and NBC will still likely score more than 110 million viewers (if not substantially higher, thanks to Nielsen changes and the growth of streaming), networks always want to maximize their spot in the Super Bowl rotation. And the league will want to make the most of a winter without Kansas City, especially with the Chiefs’ future uncertain.

Looking back at Super Bowl LVI between the Bengals and Rams, not even all the Joe Burrow supporters in football-loving Ohio and Louisiana combined with the huge (though admittedly Rams-agnostic) Los Angeles metro couldn’t cobble together a large enough audience to match the Chiefs’ and Patriots’ highs. Ironically, that game was also broadcast by NBC.

Just as with the NBA, fans continually show that they love dynasties. Even rematches and bad games rate well when fans feel a connection to the players and stories being written on the field. Other non-Brady Super Bowls before Mahomes entered the league paint the same picture. Two Peyton Manning Broncos teams failed to crack 114 million viewers, in games against Seattle and Carolina.

Time and again, the best ratings come from a combination of big markets and famous teams, with a weight on the latter. So who do NBC and the NFL want to break through in 2026?

The AFC is setting up to be Bills or best from a national interest perspective. Many casual fans could likely not even name the quarterback in Denver, while the quarterback may be the only player they can name in New England. The Jaguars have one of the smaller fanbases in the league and had their biggest storyline cut short when No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter underwent season-ending surgery in November. Houston is similarly outside the national NFL conversation.

A division-deciding Week 18 game between Pittsburgh and Baltimore offers a potential saving grace before we get to Buffalo. Neither the Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers or Lamar Jackson (and Derrick Henry)-led Ravens seem to be championship-caliber teams, but both register with the average fan in the Southwest or Great Lakes. And the Steelers have a national fanbase: Their last Super Bowl saw a 4.5 million-viewer jump from the previous season.

As for the Bills, the coming-out party NFL analysts are expecting for Josh Allen is likely seen the same way by casual fans, who by now know all about Buffalo as the underdogs chasing down the Chiefs. The story writes itself. Allen is a reigning MVP whose nemesis is out of the way, finally. Add in the potential for Buffalo to break its championship drought and Hollywood producers will be lining up to adapt this run if it goes as far as Bills faithful are hoping.

The NFC offers a few strong draws, persistently led by the Philadelphia Eagles. The country’s fifth-largest TV market is home to the reigning champs, a team that has made three of the last eight Super Bowls. Fans know Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley and ostentatious head coach Nick Sirianni.

Beyond that, legacy franchises in Chicago, San Francisco and Green Bay beckon as strong backup options. Of course, the league could also end up with the Rams or Seahawks back in, two teams analysts say are the favorites.

Where does that leave us? San Francisco was a huge draw in both of its clashes with KC in the past half-decade (and has the added intrigue of hosting Super Bowl LX). A Bills-Niners game would figure to be an epic combination of storied teams, football-crazed towns and strong narratives.

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• Netflix will air a live, Sunday-evening edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast with “Cousin Sal” Iacono on Jan. 11. It is an indication that the streamer is indeed absorbing the full scope of its new video podcasts’ output, as Simmons and Iacono have aired their long-running shows live on YouTube for years as a fixture of Simmons’ popular show for The Ringer.

• Kalshi removed branded badges from multiple X accounts last week after users pointed out antisemitic content coming from the profiles. A spokesperson said “We prohibit any content that promotes hate speech, and we immediately revoked these badges for breaking our rules.”

• A lawsuit between Sling TV and Warner Bros. Discovery continues to tilt in Sling’s favor, with a judge ruling that as currently constructed, the contracts between Sling and content providers like WBD do not prohibit Sling’s unique “Day Pass” system allowing subscribers to come and go day to day.

• Speaking of Netflix, the streamer has reportedly held talks with Pablo Torre and Meadowlark Media about licensing the video episodes of Torre’s popular investigative podcast. Per the Washington Post, the two sides have also discussed spinoff docuseries, with Torre’s reporting on the Los Angeles Clippers thought to have the most interest in Hollywood.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“Alabama has a home and away with Ohio State. Why would you even do that? … What benefit does it do you if you play that game close and they’re going to hold it against you?” - Fox’s Mark Ingram, revealing that the Tide and Buckeyes could call off a planned home-and-home in 2028 and 2029

“I started reading Long Island’s newspaper in August 1972 and always will, but the part where I work here is near an end. It’s OK! It was my decision! Time for someone else to have a turn.” - Newsday sports media columnist Neil Best in his farewell column, as he heads into retirement at 64

“LeBron is on his golf simulator right now. He’s working on getting that under. He’s not worried about this.” - Dwyane Wade (in his first appearance in the NBA on Prime studio) on his pal LeBron James’ response to a viral rant from Lakers coach JJ Redick chewing out his team

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Our Netflix sports future

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.

Click to read more from Awful Announcing on the ways in which Netflix tipped its future strategy for using live sports to promote its growing original content slate.