NFL Once Again Pushing Boundaries As New Season Kicks Off

The eve of the 2026 NFL season arrives Tuesday as the league continues to push the boundaries of its popularity both domestically and internationally.

Fresh off completing their $9.612 billion sale, the reigning champion Seahawks begin their title defense in a Super Bowl LX rematch against the Patriots on Wednesday night, a day earlier than the league typically kicks off. The last time the NFL season began on a Wednesday rather than Thursday was in 2012 in order to avoid a conflict with President Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

This season’s opener—on NBC, as usual—is on Wednesday because the NFL’s debut game in Australia (49ers-Rams) will air Thursday night due to the league’s inability to play on Friday like it has done on Week 1 the previous two years. That’s because the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 precludes pro football games from happening on Fridays or Saturdays beginning with the second Friday of September and continuing through the second Saturday in December. The 49ers-Rams matchup is being played Friday morning in Australia, but that does not violate the rules, since Melbourne is 14 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast, giving the game an 8:35 p.m. ET kick off.

Wednesday night football will be a theme this year, as the Packers and Rams will play in the NFL’s first Thanksgiving Eve game, to be streamed exclusively on Netflix. The streamer drew strong viewership for the most recent Wednesday NFL games on Christmas Day in 2024.

Netflix is expanding its NFL package to five games this year, including another Christmas doubleheader, a Week 18 contest, and Thursday’s 49ers-Rams matchup in Melbourne, which is the first of a record nine regular-season games that will be played outside the U.S. this fall. Those international games could hit double digits in 2027 after NFL owners approved further expansion this past offseason. 

The new focus on more primetime and standalone TV windows for games has meant fewer matchups in traditional Sunday afternoon slots, though. Meanwhile, the NFL is not happy with new changes Nielsen is implementing around its viewing measurement methodology this fall. The league believes fans actually watching NFL games are still not being properly reflected in the audience counts. The NFL in 2025 posted its best viewership season in more than three decades, averaging 18.7 million viewers per game.

The NFL’s aggressive media and international strategy has been led by commissioner Roger Goodell, who has just finalized a four-year contract extension that will keep him in place through at least March 2031. The current collective bargaining agreement also runs through March 2031, and the NFL can begin opting out of its current 11-year, $110 billion media rights deals after the 2029 season.