According to a recent survey by Qwilt, the NFL Wild Card Game, played in January 2024, was a record-breaking live event and was reported by Comcast as being responsible for its “biggest night on the internet ever.” The NFL Wild Card game is always a highly anticipated event on the NFL calendar, and Wild Card teams have made a significant impact in the postseason over the years, so fans are keen to keep a close eye on their progress and performance. These exclusive streaming-only events are happening more frequently. Amazon has the right to

stream Thursday Night Football, and another exclusively streamed NFL game will be hosted by Peacock this fall. Peacock, who also hosted the Wild Card game, reported a viewership of 16.3 million concurrent devices. Are mass live events the new normal? How will content providers cope with the surges in viewers streaming live content? 

In this article, we explore the NFL Wild Card game, the increase in streaming-only events, and how System73’s live content solution, Edge Intelligence, already forms part of many providers’ content delivery strategy and could help many more. 

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What is the NFL Wild Card?

The Wild Card system plays a crucial role in the postseason structure of the NFL, offering additional opportunities for teams to compete for the championship. The National Football League consists of two conferences, the AFC and NFC, each divided into four divisions. Teams with the best win-loss records in their respective divisions are declared champions and earn automatic spots in the playoffs, accounting for eight spots in total, four from each conference. Since 2020, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and to increase revenue from television rights, the NFL expanded the number of Wild Card teams from two to three per conference. This expansion means that, alongside the division champions, three additional teams with the best records in each conference also secure a place in the postseason, intensifying the competition in anticipation of the NFL playoffs. 

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A record-breaking live event

The so-called “biggest night on the internet ever,” hosted by Peacock, attracted a total audience of 27.6 million viewers. The game was fought out by the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs, with the latter ultimately taking home the winning title (26-7). This event was the first time the NFL had exclusively delivered a league final to a national audience via a streaming service. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts declared the streaming experience a huge success, stating that their team “executed flawlessly to deliver a streaming experience with the NFL on a scale that’s never been done before.” The game itself, which was also reported to be one of the coldest ever played, with temperatures scraping -4º Fahrenheit (-20º Celcius) —the coldest in the history of the Arrowhead Stadium—, consumed around 30% of U.S. internet traffic during the broadcasting window. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stressed the importance of adapting to changing viewing habits by ensuring that games are available through digital broadcasting, an essential approach for best serving fans and shaping the future of the sports and entertainment industry.

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Streaming-only events and opportunities for advertising 

In 2024, exclusive streaming-only events are happening more frequently than ever before. The rise of these events is changing the way viewers consume live content and how advertisers approach the opportunity to target audiences. This year, over 105 million North American viewers have used digital streaming platforms at least once a month to watch live sports, marking a significant 30.8% increase from 2023. This shift can also be seen in NBCUniversal’s decision to stream every Olympic event live on Peacock for the first time. This unprecedented level of digital access not only enhances viewer QoE but also provides a game-changing platform for advertisers. 

Unlike traditional TV with its limited ad space, OTT platforms like Peacock offer targeted advertising, allowing brands to reach specific audiences more effectively. As streaming platforms increasingly embrace live events —with examples such as Prime Video’s takeover of Thursday Night Football, Netflix's broadcast of the SAG Awards, and Peacock-exclusive NFL Wild Card games— advertisers are offered a unique opportunity to combine their massive reach with the creative and measurable nature of digital media. NBCUniversal’s innovative approach, including programmatic access to the Olympic Games, democratizes advertising opportunities and allows every party involved to benefit: Networks receive more revenue, advertisers reach the right viewers, and audiences enjoy a wider variety of ad formats tailored to their interests.

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Live content delivery with Edge Intelligence

The live streaming of these hugely popular live events, such as the NFL playoffs, Soccer league finals, or the Olympic Games, attract millions of viewers to a single phenomenon for a short but intense period. This surge in viewership places a great deal of strain on the network and can cause greater latency, reducing QoE and potentially leading to churn. If live content is delivered over a traditional CDN network, there is also a risk that the edge server may experience too much congestion and fail. What’s more, depending on the geolocation of certain viewers, it may not be possible to deliver content to audiences in remote and poorly served areas, or if it is possible, QoE may be compromised. 

Our live content delivery solution, Edge Intelligence, employs a centrally orchestrated broadcast tree that harnesses edge devices and creates a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to deliver high-quality content to viewers around the world, even in regions with limited infrastructure. By only using traditional CDN frameworks as touchpoints to initiate a connection with each edge device, Edge Intelligence’s centralized P2P networks allow content providers to decrease overhead and exposure to the risk of server failure caused by overloads. Thanks to Edge Intelligence, large-scale live events can be streamed over an infinitely scalable network of viewers, who enjoy the highest bit rate 94% of the time, resulting in high QoE, fewer buffering events, and less churn. 

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System73 delivers the UEFA Champions League Final

By way of example, on Saturday, the 1st of June 2024, System73 delivered the UEFA Champions League Final to viewers across the globe, maintaining 90% of our customer’s viewers on the highest bit rate for their device, ensuring maximum QoE. Many of these viewers were located in traditionally hard-to-reach areas, such as Peru, and still enjoyed high-quality, uninterrupted content. Regarding cost savings, by offering our customers a rate of $2 per TB for an infinitely scalable solution, we were also able to serve them at a much cheaper rate than that typically charged by competitors. According to our estimation, System73 was able to save our customers an impressive 65% in operations costs, making our solution one of the most affordable on the market. 

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For more information about Edge Intelligence or to book a call with our team, visit system73.com.

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