Does Beyoncé Bowl signal the future of concert streaming?

Viewership for Netflix’s Christmas Day live-streaming of two NFL games actually peaked with Beyoncé’s halftime performance, it has been announced, potentially signalling a valuable new market for the streaming giant.

For its first live-broadcast football games — part of a three-year deal of Christmas Day games — Beyoncé delivered a show-stopping halftime performance for Netflix, bringing in an average viewership of 27 million.

Average viewership during the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens matchup was roughly 24m, per Nielsen. Between the set of games – the other earlier in the day between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers – Netflix reported a total of 65m watchers from across 218 countries and territories.

Its standalone special, the Beyoncé Bowl, has racked up another 50 million views on Netflix. The performance marked the first-ever halftime show for a Christmas NFL game.

“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have delivered,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, in a statement.

Beyoncé Bowl was produced by the star’s in-house team, Parkwood Entertainment, and film/TV production service Jesse Collins Entertainment, which also worked on both Usher and Rihanna’s respective Super Bowl halftime shows in 2024 and 2023.

With a performance crew of over 500, drenched in winter white, the 13-minute halftime performance marked the debut performance of her Grammy-nominated Cowboy Carter, with a tour announcement heavily rumoured to be coming in the next week.

“Artists aren’t just looking at the audio file or the creation of the LP or album”

A roof-raising, non-stop medley of songs, the 13-minute spectacle also featured Cowboy Carter collaborators Shaboozey, Post Malone, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, and Tiera Kennedy and nearly 200 members of Texas Southern University’s Ocean of Soul Marching Band.

Artists are increasingly looking at concert filming, something the Houston native is aware of: Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé sitting as the 5th top-grossing concert film of all time and Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé is a Netflix staple. Seemingly every major artist — Taylor Swift, Coldplay, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo — has an accompanying film to capture their live performances.

In 2024 Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour film became the highest grossing in history in the concert or documentary genre, bringing in almost $300m at the box office before going on to generate even more income from streaming platforms.

“Artists aren’t just looking at the audio file or the creation of the LP or album. They’re far more engaged and looking at how audio/visual works in multiple platforms, in which cinema is just one,” said Marc Allenby, CEO of film distribution firm Trafalgar Releasing, to IQ. The London-based company led the distribution of the Renaissance film worldwide.

For tours where demand outweighs supply, an online alternative can be an accessible — and long-lasting — way for artists to reach their fanbases. The 99-time Grammy-nominated artist sold 2.8 million tickets on her Renaissance World Tour, grossing nearly US $580m, per Billboard Boxscore.

IQ will be digging deeper into the issue of concerts designed for broadcast and streaming in its next issue. 

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