The NFL’s “Tailgate Concert,” an annual Super Bowl Sunday event first held in 2021, is shifting from TikTok to YouTube for this year’s edition.
YouTube and the NFL announced Post Malone as the headliner of this year’s livestream. The pop star is expected to take the stage a bit less than three hours before kickoff of the February 9 contest at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
The NFL and YouTube have been increasingly connected in recent years. In 2022, the Google-owned video giant signed a multi-billion-dollar deal to carry the league’s Sunday Ticket package. Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner, appeared at the company’s Brandcast event for advertisers in 2023 to tout the partnership.
TikTok, meanwhile, remains hugely popular but has hit something of a limbo state after Congress passed a law banning the Chinese app, with Apple and Android keeping it out of their stores. The platform continues to operate thanks to an extension of the ban deadline arranged by President Trump, who is reportedly trying to orchestrate an acquisition of the app by a U.S.-based operator. That change of control could appease lawmakers, who reached bipartisan agreement on the ban due to security concerns, given the ultimate control of private enterprise in China by the country’s government.
Delivering live coverage of music festivals and other concerts has also been a priority for YouTube. The streamer last year rolled out its “multi-view” technology, allowing fans to follow the action on multiple stages at a festival within a single frame.
The NFL’s YouTube channel will start livestreaming the Tailgate Concert at 4 p.m. ET on game day, near the Superdome. Fox and its sibling streaming outlet Tubi will carry the game, a rematch of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, who met in the 2023 game.
Post Malone has racked up almost 18 billion total views on his YouTube channel and will also be a headliner this spring at Coachella, which YouTube has carried live.
In addition to the main headliner, the NFL’s channel will carry several hours of live programming during the Tailgate Concert. YouTube creators Kristy & Desmond Scott, Chanen & Juwan Johnson, Monet McMichael and Carter Kench are all scheduled to appear.
The first tailgate concert was in part motivated by Covid, which upended the world and cast a shadow on a range of public events, driving a massive boom in streaming. Live concerts were gradually starting to return as 2021 was beginning, as were live sports along with the availability of Covid vaccines.
In subsequent years, the pre-game event has featured artists including The Chainsmokers, The Black Keys, Jason Derulo and Gwen Stefani.
