Netflix will roll out U2 as the halftime act for its first NFL Thanksgiving Eve broadcast, the league announced on Tuesday. The Green Bay Packers face the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on November 25, with the stream reaching Netflix members across the globe.
The booking lands in a season where Netflix is pushing further into live American football than any other streamer. The platform opened the 2026 regular season with the NFL’s first-ever game in Australia and will carry two Christmas Day games this year, part of a deal that runs through the 2029-30 season.
50-yard line for the 50th year
U2 will perform from the 50-yard line, with the show produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment, according to ESPN. The slot lands as the band marks 50 years since forming in Dublin in 1976.
It is U2’s first NFL halftime appearance since Super Bowl XXXVI in February 2002, when Bono closed the show in a flag-lined jacket honoring the victims of 9/11.
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Netflix’s halftime habit
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos framed the booking as part of the platform’s push to turn its NFL days into event television.
“There’s a reason U2 has headlined stadiums for decades: they don’t just perform, they deliver iconic moments audiences remember forever,” Sarandos said.
Beyoncé played the Christmas 2024 Netflix NFL slot and Snoop Dogg followed on Christmas 2025, with U2 now bridging those two bookings on a weekday the league has not previously used for live games.
The feed will carry audio in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German, aimed at Netflix’s international subscriber base rather than the American holiday audience alone.
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A new album, then the halftime slot
U2 release their sixteenth studio album, Carnaval de Luz, on November 13, with a world tour planned for 2027. The SoFi halftime show will be one of the band’s biggest audiences before that cycle begins.
Kickoff at SoFi Stadium is set for 5pm local time on Wednesday, November 25, with the NFL’s traditional Thanksgiving Day triple-header following on the Thursday.
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