NFL fans are fuming about Saturday’s Chiefs vs. Dolphins wild-card game airing only on Peacock.
For the first time, an NFL playoff game will air exclusively on a streaming platform — outside of the Kansas City and Miami markets, where fans can watch on their local NBC affiliates — as NBCUniversal and the NFL struck a one-year deal last year worth around $110 million for Peacock to get the exclusive rights to the Saturday night game of wild-card weekend.
That means fans outside of the local markets wanting to see one of the biggest games of the weekend, featuring Tyreek Hill returning to Kansas City to take on old teammates Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, will have to subscribe to Peacock to do so; the streaming service costs $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year.
Fans have taken to social media to express their frustration.
“So if you’re not subscribed to @peacock, you won’t be able to watch the @Chiefs in the PLAYOFF game Saturday night. Seriously @NFL ???? ???? This is a playoff game. You shouldn’t have to subscribe to yet another channel to watch the game. This is ridiculous #moneygrab,” one Chiefs fan wrote on X.
Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt, a former Met, is among those outraged by the decision to put the Chiefs-Dolphins game behind a paywall.
“Letting Peacock get a playoff game should be an automatic firing of anyone involved and automatic life time jail sentence,” Bassitt wrote on X.
One Chiefs fan has tried alerting others to a hack to get free access to the game.
“Listen up for anyone outside KC area that doesn’t want to pay for Chiefs playoff game on Peacock. You don’t have to pay $6 to watch this,” the fan wrote on X. “Peacock doesn’t offer a free trial, but Instacart+ offers a free 14 day trial for new members, and Peacock is included with the service. Cancel your service within that 14 days. Your welcome #ChiefsKingdom.”
Chiefs defensive end Charles Omenihu, who on Sunday said the Peacock-exclusive scenario was “insane,” said Tuesday night he’s giving away 90 three-month subscriptions to the service.