Saturday’s AFC wild-card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins will be aired exclusively on Peacock, and one unhappy Chiefs player is taking action to make sure more fans can watch it.
Defensive end Charles Omenihu, two days after calling the game’s exclusivity “insane,” wrote on X Tuesday night that he would offer free memberships to the streaming service.
Omenihu, who is third on the Kansas City Chiefs with seven sacks, said he will give away 90 three-month Peacock memberships to fans on Friday.
“Alright Chiefs Kingdom, I saw the comments and want y’all to be able to watch us play,” said Omenihu.
NBCUniversal reportedly paid $110 million for rights to air the Saturday night 8 p.m. ET game on Peacock, making it the first playoff game ever to be available through streaming only. Only fans in Kansas City and Miami can watch the game for free on their local NBC affiliate.
It will be second game Peacock will broadcast this season. The streaming service also carried one regular-season game on Dec. 23 between the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers.
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NFL criticized over streaming Miami Dolphins-Kansas City Chiefs game
The NFL has been criticized for its decision to broadcast any games through subscription-based streaming services. Amazon Prime Video bought exclusive rights to stream the “Thursday Night Football” games before the 2022 season, and like Saturday’s playoff game, it’s only available for free to local market fans.
The backlash, however, has intensified over the controversial decision to make the Miami Dolphins-Kansas City Chiefs matchup, one with several NFL stars such as Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, a streaming-only game.
Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast programming, talked the NFL’s decision, calling it “an experiment.”
Watching the Miami Dolphins-Kansas City Chiefs playoff game should be a much better experience than attending it, since the game is expected to be among the coldest in NFL playoff history.
Asked about the frigid weather conditions, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said “we’re not having a snowball fight.”