Saturday night's game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers already carried significance as the first NFL game to be exclusively streamed on Peacock.
The matchup will also feature another milestone as NBC and the NFL announced Thursday morning that the fourth quarter will be commercial free for the first time.
NBCUniversal says there will be a 40% reduction in the standard ad time for an NFL game which should result in at least 12 additional minutes of game-related content.
Rob Hyland, the coordinating producer for NBC's “Sunday Night Football,” said there have been discussions about this game since June about how to make it distinct from a regular NBC broadcast.
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“The limited stoppages are exciting for me as someone that wants to tell the story of the game and have the time to do it,” he said.
Hyland is used to producing events with limited or no commercial breaks as one of the lead producers for NBC's Olympics coverage in prime time.
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What will air instead of commercials in the fourth quarter?
There will be two breaks that last 140 seconds each. The announcing team of Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark will delve more into some of the game's storylines during the first block.
The other will go to the “Football Night in America” studio team for their thoughts on the game as well as the upcoming slate of games for the remainder of Week 16.
What other NFL games are on Saturday in Week 16?
Saturday's game on Peacock will be preceded by another Week 16 matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers on NBC, which should help deliver a better lead-in audience.
That will be the same case on Jan. 13, when NBC will carry the afternoon wild-card playoff game and Peacock will have the night game.
Can fans in Buffalo and Los Angeles watch the Bills-Chargers game on NBC?
Games on Peacock will be broadcast on the NBC affiliates in the two team markets, which is the same case for games on Amazon Prime Video.
How many people stream Thursday Night Football on Amazon?
NBC and Peacock haven't tried to set any ratings predictions, but it is worth noting that the “Thursday Night Football” package on Amazon is averaging 12.07 million viewers this season, a 26% increase over last year.
Last Thursday's game between the Chargers and Raiders, where Las Vegas had a 42-0 lead at halftime en route to a 63-21 victory, averaged 7.98 million.
