The first NFL game ever aired exclusively on Peacock will be the subject of another first — a commercial-free fourth quarter.
NBC announced Thursday that Peacock will carry the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Bills-Chargers game — the first NFL game ever carried exclusively by the streaming service — without any commercial interruption, a first for the league. Per the NBC press release, the move will result in a 40% reduction in advertising time and additional 12 minutes of game content.
It should be noted that while Peacock will not be carrying commercial breaks during the fourth quarter, it will nonetheless feature “innovative ad formats,” including “special content takeovers.” (In other words, commercial-free is not the same as advertising-free.)
There is plenty of precedent for commercial-free coverage of crunch-time, though not in the “Big Four” sports. For example, the back-nine of golf’s season-ending Tour Championship has been carried commercial-free for years.
Bills-Chargers is the first of two exclusive games on Peacock this year. The service will also carry a playoff game over Wild Card weekend, the first time any “Big Four” playoff game has aired exclusively on a streamer. Given the higher stakes — and ad rates — in the postseason, it does not seem particularly likely that NBC will repeat the experiment for that game.
(News from NBC)
