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Christmas Day Football Streaming on Netflix
(Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
NFL - X - NFLX

The NFL carried Netflix to its most-watched Christmas Day ever

The streamer’s $150 million bid for festive games paid off, as American football continues to dominate screens.

Millie Giles

After technical glitches marred its first live sporting event, the heat was on Netflix to pull off its NFL Christmas Gameday… especially since the streamer paid $150 million for the festive football doubleheader.

But it seems to have paid off: the two games averaged 26.5 million viewers in the US, making it Netflix’s most-watched Christmas Day ever. Viewers from 218 countries and territories tuned in to at least one of the games, with the Chiefs-Steelers drawing in 30 million viewers worldwide and the Ravens-Texans game attracting 31.3 million.

NFL by NFLX

This marked the first of the NFL’s three-season partnership with Netflix to broadcast games on Christmas, as well as the streamer’s first foray into the NFL, giving further credence to football fixtures becoming some of the streaming sphere’s most lucrative assets. While subscribing to several platforms is a pain for fans, the fight to gain ground in the field has done little to perturb viewership. According to Nielsen data reported by Variety, NFL games comprised the entire top 10 most-watched prime-time telecasts last year, with each accumulating more than 20 million viewers.

The NFL dominates TV in America
Sherwood News

With the sport’s near universal appeal showing few signs of waning, fixtures of the football scene like Monday Night Football (secured by ESPN for $2.7 billion per year) are increasingly valuable commodities, which streamers like Amazon’s Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube TV, and Peacock are willing to pay top dollar for.

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Netflix is staffing up an apparent AI animation studio called INKubator

According to several public job listings, streaming giant Netflix appears to be building a GenAI animation studio called INKubator.

First reported by journalist Janko Roettgers in the Lowpass newsletter, INKubator seems to have launched in March and aims to “develop feature-quality content in a creator-led environment.”

As Lowpass reports, INKubator appears focused on AI-generated short-form animation, but listings imply ambitions toward longer-form content. Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

INKubator wouldn’t be Netflix’s first foray into AI. Back in March, it acquired Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking startup InterPositive — which trains on individual films’ already-shot footage — for as much as $600 million depending on certain targets.

Netflix’s potential future AI-generated animations could be served to an increasingly ad-packed streaming service. At Netflix’s Upfront presentation on Wednesday, the company said its ad-supported tier has now reached 250 million subscribers globally, up 31% from November.

Netflix is building an AI animation studio

Netflix is building an AI animation studio

As Lowpass reports, INKubator appears focused on AI-generated short-form animation, but listings imply ambitions toward longer-form content. Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

INKubator wouldn’t be Netflix’s first foray into AI. Back in March, it acquired Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking startup InterPositive — which trains on individual films’ already-shot footage — for as much as $600 million depending on certain targets.

Netflix’s potential future AI-generated animations could be served to an increasingly ad-packed streaming service. At Netflix’s Upfront presentation on Wednesday, the company said its ad-supported tier has now reached 250 million subscribers globally, up 31% from November.

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Saleah Blancaflor

Netflix confirms a “KPop Demon Hunters” world concert tour is on the way

Netflix has a “Golden” mine and it's digging deeper.

At its fourth annual TV Upfront presentation on Wednesday, Netflix President of Advertising Amy Reinhard announced a partnership with AEG Presents to create a “KPop Demon Hunters” world tour that will bring the phenomenon to life.

In March, Bloomberg previously reported Netflix was planning a global world tour sometime next year ahead of the sequel in arenas that would hold 10,000 to 20,000 fans, though the news had not been confirmed by the company nor had a partner been in place at the time. 

“KPop Demon Hunters” is Netflix’s most watched film of all time, racking up 481.6 million views globally during the second half of 2025. Since its release, the HUNTR/X trio of Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami has appeared and performed at several major events including late-night talk shows, award ceremonies, and most recently at Coachella, where they were a surprise guest for Katseye. It hasn’t been confirmed whether the trio will be on the tour.

The announcement of the tour comes after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos shared in a recent blog post that the company spent $135 billion on licensing and original film and TV over the last 10 years.

This year, Netflix has a projected content spend of $20 billion, up 10% year over year, while its annual revenue forecast is between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion. The streaming giant has brought in more than $46 billion in profit over the past decade.

Netflix said more details around cities and tickets for the concert tour are expected to come out later this year.

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