The Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers are squaring off in week 16 of the 2023 NFL season, with the game taking place on Saturday, December 23, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. In addition to taking place on a Saturday, there is something else unique about the Bills vs Chargers game — the fact that it is being billed as the first-ever NFL game exclusively airing on Peacock. This raises the question, do you really need Peacock to watch Bills vs Chargers, or is there any other way to view the matchup?
Basically, it depends on where you live.
For most of the country, yes, the Peacock TV streaming service is going to be the only way that you can watch this game, so a subscription is required, though it can be for either Peacock Premium or Peacock Premium Plus, as both offer live sports.
However, if you live in the greater Buffalo or Los Angeles areas, then there is another option, as the game is going to broadcast on your local NBC station, available through a traditional pay-TV provider, via a TV antenna or a live TV streaming service that carries NBC (i.e., Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV).
Everyone else (or if you live in those areas but don't have access to your local NBC station), if you are not already a subscriber to Peacock, you are going to need to sign up for the streaming service if you have an interest in watching Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs and the Bills go against Austin Ekeler, Derwin James and the Chargers. Unfortunately, there is no longer a Peacock free trial, so you can't test out the streaming service to just stream the game.
You can watch the NFL on Peacock pretty much every week, as the streaming service offers live streams of Sunday Night Football, but this year is the first time that it is going to show a game exclusively, following in the footsteps of Prime Video, which is the exclusive home for Thursday Night Football (though again exceptions are made for team’s local broadcast areas).
This won't be the only exclusive game on Peacock this NFL season either. The streamer is also set to stream an NFL Wild Card game on Saturday, January 13.
If you want to find out how to watch more of the NFL week 16 games, check out our NFL on CBS, NFL on Fox, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football features.
