Taylor Swift's Boyfriend Is Exclusively on Peacock This Weekend. Deal With It

By Dustin Rowles | TV | January 11, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | January 11, 2024 |

The NFL playoffs kick off this weekend, and if you’re like me, you’ll be spending part of your weekend trying to figure out where each playoff game is airing and whether you have access to it. Every game preview and scoreboard has the gambling odds next to it but not the network upon which it airs. AMERICA.

Here’s the schedule if you’re curious:

Saturday, January 13, 2024
AFC Wild-card matchup - Cleveland Browns vs. Houston Texans 4:30 p.m. (NBC/Peacock)
AFC Wild-card matchup - Miami Dolphins vs. Kansas City Chiefs 8:15 p.m. (Peacock)

Sunday, January 14, 2024
AFC Wild-card matchup - Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Buffalo Bills 1 p.m. (CBS)
NFC Wild-card matchup - Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys 4:30 p.m. (FOX)
NFC Wild-card matchup - Los Angeles Rams vs. Detroit Lions 8:15 p.m. (NBC)

Monday, January 15, 2024
NFC Wild-card matchup - Philadelphia Eagles vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 8:15 p.m. (ESPN/ABC)

I like the NFL enough to subscribe to RedZone ($75 a season), but not enough to subscribe to cable ($70 a month). However, I do subscribe to all the streamers. That means I can watch all the NBC, CBS, Amazon, and ESPN+ games, plus Redzone basically covers all the Sunday games (except for Sunday night football).

However, it gets more complicated during the playoffs. There are some people, however, who are up in arms over the fact that Peacock paid $110 million for exclusive rights to two streaming games, including this weekend’s Dolphins/Chiefs game. Here’s Mike Francesa:

“How many in America don’t have cable TV? How many in America don’t have smart TVs? How many people in America don’t know what streaming is, no less finding streaming or willing to pay an extra amount to get a playoff game? This is a joke that the NFL would do this with their playoff product. It’s bad enough they would do it with a regular season game on a Thursday night or to do it on a regular season game on a Saturday. But to do it with a playoff game is the biggest slap in the face to their national fanbase. People wait all year for these playoff games. They love these playoff games. And you’re gonna now charge them extra for a playoff game?”

All due respect, Mike, but if someone wants to watch the Dolphins/Chiefs game this Saturday, it will cost all of $6 for a month-long subscription to Peacock, which can be used to watch the rest of the NBC/Peacock playoff games, Poker Face, the Psych movies, and every season of Suits before canceling.

On the other hand, if you want to watch a game that airs exclusively on Fox or ESPN, the only way to do that is by subscribing to cable (unless you use a wieldy antenna that costs $20 to watch Fox/ABC games with a flappy antenna hanging out of your window). Cable costs $70 a month, at least, and it is a lousy investment of $70 because cable sucks, and everything decent on TV is on a streaming service, except for Fox and ESPN NFL games.

That’s where the real slap in the face is: Cable is an expensive, trash product that the NFL insists we subscribe to if we want to watch Fox or ESPN games. Get with the times, Mike. Peacock is not the exorbitant expense. Cable is. Everyone who has purchased a TV within the last 3 or 4 years has a Smart TV, Mike, so stop yelling at clouds. Even for older folks, accessing a streaming app through a smart TV, a Firestick or Roku is easier than dealing with a goddamn cable box. I am super bummed I’m not going to be able to watch Stafford vs. Goff from my home on Monday night, but it’s not worth $70. If I didn’t subscribe to Peacock, though, I’d pony up $6 to watch the Chiefs lose to the Dolphins. Whether it’s actually worth $110 million to NBC/Universal is another question entirely.