The first Notre Dame home game of the year will not air on regular NBC, but rather it will air exclusively on NBC’s streaming app Peacock the University and NBC jointly announced yesterday. The 2021 Notre Dame Blue & Gold game also aired on Peacock.
“Fighting Irish TV and Peacock shows the evolution of how media is consumed by our fans and television viewers, alike,” Swarbrick added. “We want to provide a great experience to not only our fans who travel around the world to cheer us on, but also to our supporters who are either cable subscribers or ‘cord-cutters,’ and these two streaming platforms do just that. I see no better example of this than Peacock’s success in delivering fans wall-to-wall content during the Tokyo Olympics.”
Official Notre Dame Press Release, August 4, 2021
Notre Dame and Toledo is set to kickoff at 2:30 PM on September 11.
This news should not have surprised anyone, though it predictably has angered many. Brands and networks are all pushing their streaming apps as they scramble for eyeballs and users as more and more people have cut the cord.
The good news here is that Notre Dame fans have plenty of time to either make sure they sign up for a month of Peacock in advance of the opener or make arrangements to watch the game somewhere else. Fans might have a hard time finding bars that will have the game, however, since most bars aren’t going to subscribe to something like Peacock for a single game.
While it is frustrating, this is the direction the entire broadcast industry is headed and Notre Dame/NBC have jumped on. While I’m not thrilled I’m going to have to likely subscribe to Peacock for a month to watch the game, I get it from a business perspective. As Notre Dame strives to maintain its Independence while super conferences like the SEC are formed, the viability of streaming games could be crucial for Notre Dame. It is likely no coincidence that Notre Dame launched Fighting Irish TV earlier this year.
This probably won’t be the last time a Notre Dame game is streamed. Remember, for years NBC tried to use one Notre Dame a season to push its soon-to-be-defunct NBC Sports Network. Earlier this year it was announced that NBCSN would shut down by the end of 2021.
Again, from a business perspective, it makes sense for NBC to try to use one of its best assets – Notre Dame football – to try to inflate their subscription numbers even if it does frustrate and upset Notre Dame fans in the process. It’s not like NBC has done a whole lot over the last 20 years to please Notre Dame fans in the first place.
Can’t get streaming where I live. Sad day Notre dame football just lost a fan!
I hope the ND fan base just boycotts the broadcast. If NBC is successful with their little streaming experiment you can be sure they will try to charge for future games or put them exclusively on their subscription streaming service.
My father brought me up on Notre Dame football this peacock stuff is politics and money in someone’s pocket
I wouldn’t panic that suddenly several games are going to be switched from NBC to Peacock. One ‘low interest’ game a year to pump up their app (like as Frank noted when they used to try with NBCSN), yeah. But you’re not going to suddenly see ND-USC games on Peacock and not on NBC. The big money is still on the network and they can still sell ad revenue for more money on NBC. So I don’t see this moving beyond one game. It just sucks for fans that this is the first game of the season, and I know some ND fans like to watch every game start to finish.
I guess I’m lucky in the sense that since we have Xfinity where I live, which is also owned by NBC, I get Peacock included.
But also unlucky because Xfinity still doesn’t have the ACC Network. So any ND Football games there I can’t watch (and as a ND basketball fan also I miss out on several basketball games as well). Their deal is up for renegotiation next year so I imagine by this time next year that will be resolved at least.
I can see ND football games someday being part of the MeTV Saturday line-up.
Sad day when ND home game will not be aired on regular NBC TV. Will lose the fringe ND fan and piss off alumni like me. From a recruiting standpoint, potential recruits will not see ND demolish Toledo and have the chance to envision themselves playing in such a game themselves in the future. Sad, Very sad!!!
Very disappointing that Notre Dame no longer has the commercial clout to stop this from happening. Odds are good that I won’t be watching this game.
I hear you can find the odd SEC game on cable TV some Saturdays….some people have told me they’re pretty good.
Kudos to NBC……for having enough sense to see that its strategy for sports entertainment success wasn’t working, and having the guts to put an end to it, despite the enormous embarrassment and cost.
Meanwhile, fraud Brian Kelly strolls into his 16th season at ND…..
If you want to find a place that has Peacock, then look and see which bars in your area are known to be open for soccer games on the weekend. Those bars will most likely have Peacock because of the Premier League. Where I live, there are three bars that I know of that have Peacock because of the Premier League. Hopefully that helps.
Peacock has been hit or miss when it comes to live broadcast. For the Premier League, it has been for most part pretty good. There have been some lags on occasions. I would say the Olympics have fairly gone well too. For WWE live events, Peacock doesn’t have a good track record for streaming the pay per views. For the last Pay Per View, Peacock’s stream went completely dead and they had to show another network’s feed from a different country. Hopefully it goes well for Notre Dame football because this won’t be the only time this happens.