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The San Francisco 49ers will open the 2026 NFL season overseas, playing an international game in Australia against NFC West rival the Los Angeles Rams. While this game is still months away, news emerged regarding who will be transmitting this contest.
On May 7, The Athletic’s Dan Shanoff and Andrew Marchand reported, citing sources, that Netflix will air the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game from Australia between the Rams and Niners.
“The streaming platform will air the Week 1 game between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams on Thursday, Sept. 10, with kickoff at 8:35 p.m. ET from Melbourne Cricket Ground, the largest stadium in Australia,” the report said. “NBC is expected to handle production of the game.
“The early-season deal bookends Netflix’s current broadcast relationship with the NFL, which has included two games on Christmas Day the past two seasons and will continue in December 2026. Fox will air a third Christmas game in prime time.”
San Francisco will have a busy 2026 season from an international perspective, as they will open the season in Australia and play a game in Mexico City. It hasn’t yet been revealed when the game in Mexico City will take place or who they’ll face, but that will be announced once the NFL releases the schedule.
Unlike Australia, the 49ers have been a mainstay in Mexico City, having featured in two of the six games the NFL has held there. As a result, 2026 will mark the third time that the Niners play in Mexico’s capital.
As for the Australia game, there will not just be a win riding on the line when the Niners and Rams meet. There will also be bragging rights between former teammates.
On the April 10 edition of “The Jim Rome Show,” Rams’ Jared Verse shared the trash talk that will go on between himself and 49ers’ Tatum Bethune and Renardo Green, who were his teammates during their time with the Florida State Seminoles.
“Two of my teammates from Florida State, Tatum Bethune and Renardo Green, both play defense for them, “ Verse said. “Those two went to Florida State with me when we were on the 13-0 team, all that undefeated stuff. We take things really seriously. So whenever we play them, it’s like the biggest beef. We don’t say hi to each other pregame. We’re talking trash to each other.
“There are no dap-ups. There are no high-fives. There’s nothing like that. They walk by me, I walk by them. So now we’ve got to go all the way to Australia to do this. It’s going to be even higher level because now, when we beat them, I can say I’m beating your ass outside the country, too. I don’t even have to just be in LA and San Francisco. I can beat you anywhere we go.”
Moreover, both teams know how important this game will be as they want to be in the driver’s seat early on to win the NFC West. San Francisco and Los Angeles made the playoffs last season as Wild Card teams, but had to travel to the Pacific Northwest to face the division-winning Seattle Seahawks and lost to their rival in the playoffs.
As a result, the two sides know that if they want to reach the Super Bowl, it would be ideal for them to ensure they host the playoff game and avoid having to travel on the road.
Eduardo Razo Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo
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