Thursday Night Football Has A New Home On Prime Video: Amazon, The NFL Ink $1B Deal

It’s almost time for the NFL’s regular season to start, which will bring back one of the nation’s favorite pastimes. The football season is broken up into 18 weeks that run from Thursday-Monday, and it all culminates in the largest event of the year, the Super Bowl.

While the Super Bowl remains supreme in captivating hundreds of millions of viewers, the primetime spectacular of Thursday Night Football (TNF) does a pretty good job at that as well. 

Heading into the 2022-2023 season, the NFL has been shopping around to find a TV or streaming service that would be willing to pay millions to produce TNF. Now, just weeks away from kickoff, the contract has been signed and TNF has a new home.

The Billion-Dollar Deal: On Friday, Amazon.com, Inc.’s AMZN Prime Video signed a $1-billion deal with the NFL to be the main producer of TNF, CNBC reported.

The online behemoth has continued to grow through its subsidiaries such as Prime Video, and TNF is now the newest addition to that plan. The new era of TNF will begin on Aug.  25 with a preseason game between the San Francisco 49s and the Houston Texans. 

This marks the first time in the league’s history a streaming service will be the sole carrier for a package of national games, and it has caused initial frustration among fans.

Why Are Fans Upset: The deal has upset many fans because they will no longer be able to enjoy TNF without any additional costs. Paramount Global PARA subsidiary CBS has been the main producer of the game since 2014, which allowed fans to watch the game for no additional cost, assuming they had a cable plan including CBS.

On the contrary, fans will now have to pay $8.99 a month for a Prime Video subscription to access the game. 

Another worry that fans are having is that their internet doesn’t have the bandwidth to handle a livestream. Amazon is promising to keep an open line of communication with customers on how it can better the viewing experience.

Amazon spokesman Tim Buckman shared with CNBC: “Free of bandwidth and channel limits that constrain optionality on linear platforms, our promise is to continually listen to our customers, iterate and intentionally develop new and better ways for more fans to enjoy the games.”

Delivering New Experience For Timeless Game: As Amazon takes over coverage of TNF, the company has announced plans to provide viewers with a new experience. 

To drive viewership towards its NFL broadcast, live games will automatically begin playing when people log on to Amazon.com. The game will also be featured on Prime Video's home screen to alert members when the game is taking place. Once a customer clicks on the stream, they will be given the choice to watch, record or start from the beginning of the broadcast. Customers will also have the option to record the entire slate of TNF games for the season all at once. 

In addition, Amazon will also debut new technology features such as “X-ray stats.” 

The feature will give viewers the ability to see real-time statistics on the screen. Along with standard stats such as yards and touchdowns, it will include next-gen stats such as the quarterback’s average throw time or yards after contact for running backs and receivers. This will all be possible through Amazon Web Services chips that allow for instant updates. 

Fire TV users will be able to ask their Alexa commands such as “show me stats” or “play the last touchdown” if they want to catch up on the action.

Finally, many users are concerned the quality of the content will fluster as TNF moves to Prime Video.

Earlier this year, Apple Inc. APPL began to cover MLB games on Apple TV+ and it received backlash from viewers. Many complained the announcers lack experience and that they don’t provide the same quality play-by-play experience viewers are used to.

Amazon has made two hires on this front: the company has hired broadcasting legend Al Michaels, who used to cover NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” and longtime college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit to call the game. 

Photo: Courtesy of Adrian Curiel on Unsplash.