If there was any question whether the NFL regards streaming as the equal of the broadcast networks, Prime Video is getting arguably the highest-profile game of Wild Card weekend.<\/p>\n
The NFL announced Sunday that next week\u2019s Packers-Bears NFC Wild Card playoff game, the rivals\u2019 first postseason meeting since the 2011 NFC Championship and third all-time, will air in a Saturday night window on Amazon Prime Video<\/a>. While the league has scheduled marquee playoff games for streaming services before \u2014 Dolphins-Chiefs on Peacock two years ago and Steelers-Ravens last year \u2014 in neither case was the matchup the highest-profile of the weekend.<\/p>\n While one could make an argument for 49ers-Eagles, which will air in the late Sunday afternoon window on FOX next week, Packers-Bears is at least on paper the most attractive of the six Wild Card games for television purposes. The rivals\u2019 matchup in Week 14 headlined a FOX national window that averaged 27.9 million viewers \u2014 ranking ninth for the season through last week\u2019s games, the only Wild Card matchup to rank in the top ten.<\/p>\n A second matchup two weeks later averaged 21.3 million in the same Saturday night window that next week\u2019s game will occupy (albeit on FOX).<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s Steelers-Ravens Wild Card game on Prime Video averaged 22.07 million viewers (including local over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets), down 3% from the previous year\u2019s Dolphins-Chiefs game on Peacock. (Though it should be noted that the household rating was up 5%.) Given the matchup and the Nielsen methodological changes of the past year, it is highly unlikely that Prime will suffer a decline this time around.<\/p>\n