What happens when you put the NFL behind a streaming paywall? Netflix's recent broadcasts reveal one answer: slightly fewer viewers, but dramatically higher ad engagement.
EDO President and CEO Kevin Krim joined Becky Quick on CNBC's Squawk Box to break down what Netflix's Christmas Day NFL games reveal about the future of live sports advertising. The transformative three-year deal has given Netflix exclusive rights to broadcast a holiday NFL doubleheader through the 2026 season.
To gauge the impact of this partnership, EDO tracked the searches, website visits, and app activity that spiked after each ad aired — behaviors that predict eventual sales. Watch the full interview below and read a quick summary of our insights.
Netflix's Christmas Day games have drawn record streaming audiences for live sports. In 2024, nearly 65 million viewers tuned in at some point over the doubleheader, with the Chiefs vs. Steelers averaging 24.1 million and Ravens vs. Texans averaging 24.3 million. In 2025, the Lions vs. Vikings showdown became the most-streamed NFL game in US history, peaking at over 30 million viewers.
These numbers are still slightly lower than Christmas Day broadcasts prior to 2024. That's the trade-off around putting content behind a subscription. “When you put a paywall in front of an audience, you’re going to lose some amount of people,” Krim explained. “But these are still large audiences for any live sporting event.”
From an advertiser's perspective, that smaller audience also delivered outsized results. EDO data shows that ads during the Netflix Christmas Day NFL games generated 1.5x more total engagement than the average regular season game.
Unlike Amazon's Black Friday game — where viewers were primed to shop — Netflix's Christmas audience responded more strongly to other consumer categories. Overall, Entertainment ads were 84% more engaging on Christmas Day than in regular-season games, perhaps reflecting the added leisure time of the holiday break.
Netflix's own properties led the pack, with Squid Game Season 2 topping the engagement rankings. Weight-loss ads also broke through, with three GLP-1 pharmaceutical brands (Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound) landing in the top performers.
CNBC’s Quick noted that GLP-1 brands have already become household names. Krim believes the category’s high ad engagement shows a desire from consumers to “learn more, wanting to know the details, and is this right for me or my family?"
Blowout games typically hurt both viewership and ad engagement. But despite two lopsided matches in Netflix’s debut 2024 Christmas Day matchups, Beyoncé's iconic halftime performance helped defy that pattern.
"There's a real Beyoncé effect," Krim said. "Blowouts tend to hurt performance, and yet she attracted more people than the games themselves, and she had a halo effect around the engagement with the ads."
In its 2025 double-header, Netflix doubled-down on big-name music stars. Kelly Clarkson opened the broadcast with a special Christmas-themed musical lead-in, followed by a Snoop Dogg-hosted halftime party in the second matchup.
The economics of streaming live sports create a positive feedback loop for media companies and leagues. Peacock's NFL exclusive in Brazil delivered 78% higher per-person ad engagement than an average game; last year's Peacock Wild Card playoff game hit 97% higher engagement. That directly impacts pricing power.
"Higher engagement translates to higher value for advertisers, which means they're willing to pay more," Krim explained. "You're going to see more money go into live streaming. But there's a trade-off [leagues] have to be careful about, making sure fans can still get to the programs they want to see."
From Peacock streaming the Olympics to Prime Video’s exclusive rights to the NBA Cup, the live sports-to-streaming trend continues to gain momentum.
The ad performance from Netflix's Christmas Day games makes one thing clear: reach alone doesn't tell the full story. Engagement does.
As streaming platforms acquire more premium sports rights, understanding the fair value of every impression has never been more critical. EDO's AI-powered measurement platform helps advertisers and media companies quantify engagement across linear and streaming investments.
Contact our team to see how EDO can help you measure what matters in live sports advertising, or download our NFL TV Outcomes Report for a deep dive into streaming-exclusive game performance, top advertisers, and more.