The shift of sports to streaming is having an effect on broadband networks.
Speaking on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday, Comcast president Michael Cavanagh said that peak broadband network traffic has shifted from Sunday nights to Thursdays now that Thursday Night Football streams exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
People streaming the NFL game represent 25% of all internet traffic on Thursday nights, Cavanagh said.
Broadband networks “will be put to the test as this transition of sports to streaming continues,” he said.
Cavanagh said a big challenge for the industry will come in January when Comcast’s Peacock exclusively streams an NFL playoff game.
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said the shift will be good for the company's broadband business.
Roberts said he believes that over time all sports will find their way to streaming.
"That's going to require more bandwidth and create an opportunity for us to have a superior product in the market," Roberts said.
Peacock, which claims to have the most live-streaming sports among direct-to-consumer services, has been adding to its sports portfolio. In addition to the NFL, it added Big Ten college sports and has English Premier League soccer.
