Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
For years, the NFL had Thanksgiving and the NBA had Christmas. Now, the NFL is coming down the chimney and stealing the NBA’s milk and cookies.
What’s happening: The NFL is playing on Christmas Day for a third straight season, and they’re going bigger than ever this year, with the first Christmas triple-header in league history.
- Packers at Dolphins (1 p.m. ET, Fox)
- Broncos at Rams (4:30 p.m., CBS/Nickelodeon)
- Buccaneers at Cardinals (8 p.m., NBC)
Why it matters: America has long been obsessed with watching football — just not typically on December 25. But with the NFL looking to expand its footprint, and with Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, Christmas is becoming a football holiday.
State of play: The NFL accounted for 41 of the 50 most-watched TV broadcasts of 2021, and 75 of the top 100. That’s why today’s triple-header will likely lap the NBA in ratings, even though only one of the teams playing — the Dolphins — has a winning record.
- The NBA’s Christmas Day games averaged 4.1 million viewers last year, the lowest viewership since the schedule expanded to five games in 2008.
- That was due in part to the NFL’s Christmas doubleheader, with Packers-Browns drawing 28.6 million viewers and Colts-Cardinals drawing 12.6 million.
- A third NFL game will only make things worse for ABC/ESPN, which will air all five NBA games today. Disney, an NFL media partner, can’t be thrilled.
The big picture: The NFL isn’t just encroaching on Christmas. It’s also adding a Black Friday game in 2023, tightening its grip on Thanksgiving weekend at the expense of college football, which has played Black Friday games since the 1970s.
- The league has also successfully turned mundane offseason events like the schedule release and first day of training camp into tentpole events.
- It’s all part of a strategy to “grow the pie,” as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones likes to say. If the mighty NFL wants to own a part of the calendar, it will.
By the numbers: There have been 27 Christmas Day NFL games, including today’s slate. 20 of those have come this century and 15 have come since 2006, when Roger Goodell became commissioner.
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