Netflix’s NFL era is getting another stadium-sized music moment.
U2 will headline the halftime show for the NFL’s first Thanksgiving Eve game, a Green Bay Packers-Los Angeles Rams matchup set for Wednesday, Nov. 25, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Netflix says coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET, with kickoff scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, turning the night before Thanksgiving into a new national football-and-entertainment appointment.
The booking is more than a halftime add-on. It places one of rock’s biggest touring acts inside the NFL’s fast-growing streaming strategy, and it gives Netflix another chance to make live sports feel like a full entertainment package rather than just a game feed.
A New Holiday Football Window Gets a Major Music Anchor
According to the NFL and Netflix, the Thanksgiving Eve game will feature the Packers visiting the Rams in prime time. The Rams also confirmed the game will be broadcast globally on Netflix and locally in Los Angeles on NBC-4. For fans in Charlotte and across the Carolinas, that means the matchup sits right in the holiday travel window, when the NFL traditionally dominates living rooms, restaurants and family gatherings.
The NFL has long owned Thanksgiving Day with its Detroit and Dallas traditions, then expanded deeper into the holiday weekend with Black Friday football. Thanksgiving Eve is the next move. By attaching U2 to the first edition, the league and Netflix are sending a clear message: this is not being treated like an ordinary midweek game.
U2 arrives with its own milestone. Netflix’s Tudum announcement notes the band is celebrating 50 years together after forming in Dublin in 1976. That anniversary gives the performance a legacy hook, while the SoFi Stadium setting gives it a modern mega-event feel. The venue has become one of the country’s biggest sports and concert stages, and the Rams framed the halftime announcement as part of SoFi’s broader run of high-profile events.
Netflix Keeps Building Its Live Sports Identity
This is also about Netflix’s evolution. The streamer has moved aggressively from sports-adjacent documentaries into live sports windows, and the NFL is the biggest prize in American television. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that Netflix’s expanded NFL footprint runs through 2029 and includes five regular-season games plus NFL Honors.
Netflix’s 2026 NFL schedule includes the Thanksgiving Eve game, two Christmas Day games, and a Week 18 matchup. The company also points to past halftime programming as part of its playbook: Beyoncé’s Christmas Day performance in 2024 and Snoop Dogg’s holiday halftime event in 2025. U2 now gives Netflix a different kind of headliner, one rooted in arena rock, global touring history and cross-generational name recognition.
That matters because streaming sports is no longer just about rights. It is about reducing friction for casual viewers, creating shareable moments and making the broadcast feel like an event even for people who may not care about every snap. A Packers-Rams game already brings two major NFL brands. Adding U2 gives the night an entertainment hook that can reach beyond the usual football audience.
Why U2 Fits This Stage
U2’s connection to NFL spectacle is already established. The band headlined the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show in February 2002, a performance remembered for its emotional tribute after the Sept. 11 attacks. Nearly 25 years later, the group returns to an NFL halftime stage in a very different media landscape: not network-only, not cable-first, but global streaming-first.
The NFL said Jesse Collins Entertainment will produce the halftime show, another indication that the league and Netflix are treating the performance with the same event-TV polish expected from marquee music programming. The broadcast will be available in more than 200 countries, with Netflix offering language options including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German, according to the NFL’s announcement.
For U2, the performance keeps the band visible in the type of high-reach cultural space that few acts can command. For Netflix, it helps position the service as a home for live moments that people watch together in real time. And for the NFL, it adds another layer to a holiday calendar that now stretches from Thanksgiving Eve through Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Christmas and the final playoff-push weeks of the regular season.
The Bottom Line
The Packers-Rams Thanksgiving Eve game is already historic because it opens a new NFL holiday window. U2 makes it feel bigger. Whether viewers come for the football, the halftime show or the curiosity of seeing how Netflix stages another live NFL showcase, Nov. 25 now has the shape of a full-scale sports-entertainment event.
In a crowded media world, that combination is the point. The NFL gets another prime-time holiday tentpole. Netflix gets another global live test. U2 gets a massive stage during a milestone year. And fans get one more reason to turn the night before Thanksgiving into appointment viewing.
