How the NFL (and Netflix) Stole Christmas From the NBA

LeBron James is a huge NFL fan. He often tweets about his hometown Browns as well as the Cowboys, and even used to post his predictions for NFL games on Instagram. But following the Lakers’ last-second win over the Warriors on Christmas Day, James made sure to highlight the NBA. 

“I love the NFL, but Christmas is our day,” James said.

The NFL callout on national TV showed that James—who, despite being four days away from turning 40, is still basketball’s biggest draw—is hyperaware that his league is losing its hold on Christmas. The NBA has played Christmas Day games nearly every year since 1947, while the NFL had only sporadically scheduled games on the holiday. But over the last five years, football has become a Christmas staple, and it does not look like it’s going away.

In 2022, the NFL had a tripleheader on Christmas for the first time. They did it again last year, and the NBA’s viewership average for its five-game Christmas slate dropped to a record-low 2.85 million viewers. Christmas fell on a Wednesday this year, but the NFL tweaked its schedule to accommodate two games. 

Ratings have yet to be released, but history shows that comparing NBA and NFL viewership will likely show the latter’s dominance. Comparing viewership may not be the fairest barometer, specifically in the U.S., where an NFL game will draw over 10 million viewers on any given Sunday, while nowadays, the NBA only breaches that mark during the Finals. But partnering with Netflix also allowed the NFL to target one of the NBA’s biggest strengths: An international audience. The two NFL games were available to the nearly 283 million global Netflix subscribers.

A league’s cultural attachment to the holiday also drives its relevance—and the NFL pulled out all the stops with its $150 million Netflix partnership that included a star-studded broadcast and studio crew, as well as a halftime show from Beyoncé which could start a Christmas Day trend akin to Super Bowl performances. 

There is initial data to showcase the NFL’s Christmas Day success. The Chiefs–Steelers contest surpassed the concurrent viewership of any Christmas Day game over the last four years, according to Netflix. The streamer’s social media page alone amassed 54.34 million views and 24.69 million engagements for its Christmas slate, according to Mondo Metrics. Netflix also avoided major buffering issues that plagued its stream of the Tyson–Paul fight, which still managed to draw record ratings. 

The NBA did come away with the more entertaining games on Wednesday, as all five were decided by ten points or less, while the two NFL games ended in blowouts. Early ratings data from Puck’s John Ourand shows the NBA also saw double-digit percent increases during its first, fourth, and fifth games of the day. The first game started before the NFL’s first stream, while the last two games followed the Netflix doubleheader. In addition, all games were simulcast on ABC this year, which was not the case in 2023.

The NBA announced on Thursday afternoon that Christmas ratings were up 83% from last year, a huge jump that has to be seen as a win for the league. The Lakers and Warriors led the way with 7.76 million on average, which the league said was the largest Christmas audience for any game in five years. The strong day could be helpful for the NBA in reigniting its viewership, a topic that has been a stain on the first quarter of the season. 

But as far as Christmas is concerned, following the NFL’s successful first year with Netflix, the NBA has to, at the very least, get used to sharing the holiday with football.