Amazon is making football history. Amazon Prime Video has signed a 10-year agreement with the National Football League to exclusively broadcast 15 Thursday Night Football games during the regular season and one pre-season game each year in the United States.
This is the NFL’s first exclusive national broadcast package with a digital streaming service. The deal also means fans will get closer to the on-field action with popular features including X-Ray with Next Gen Stats, which are available exclusively to Prime members in the United States.
The games will stream on Prime Video as part of a Prime membership starting in 2023, and the number of regular-season games included in the Thursday Night Football package will increase from 11 to 15.
“NFL games are the most watched live programming in the United States, and this unprecedented Thursday Night Football package gives tens of millions of new and existing Prime members exclusive access to must-watch live football on Prime Video,” said Mike Hopkins, SVP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “NFL fans from across the country will enjoy a premium viewing experience with Thursday Night Football, as well as access to a broad selection of content including award-winning Amazon Originals available on Prime Video.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell noted the deal was historic.
“Thursday Night Football will be our first-ever digital package, and we are thrilled to exclusively partner with Amazon to bring our games to more fans on more platforms,” Goodell said. “NFL football drives passionate viewers and Amazon will enable us to continue to grow our fan base in innovative and compelling ways.”
Under the deal, Prime Video will deliver new pre-game, half-time, and post-game shows—all while continuing to offer fan-favorite interactive features like X-Ray and Next Gen Stats, which provide a more customizable viewing experience. Prime Video has alsosecured rights to a weekly lineup of original NFL programming and expanded rights to in-game highlights for all NFL matchups.
Prime Video, which supports a growing lineup of live sports around the world, will continue to collaborate with the NFL on exclusive content and enhanced fan viewing experiences around Thursday Night Football. Stay tuned for more information ahead of the first game in 2023.
The new deal marks a big step for collaboration between Amazon and the NFL. Amazon first distributed a simulcast of Thursday Night Football during the 2017 season. And in April 2020, Amazon and the NFL expanded the existing 11-game Thursday Night Football package on Prime Video to include one exclusive regular-season game per year.
The game on December 26, between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals—drew an estimated 11.2 million total viewers. It also delivered the highest digital average-minute audience ever for an NFL regular-season game.
Additionally, since 2017, the NFL has used Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its official cloud and machine learning provider for Next Gen Stats, which provides real-time location, speed, and acceleration data for every player during every play on every inch of the field.
Each game will also be televised in the participating teams’ home marketplaces, to keep with the NFL's long-standing commitment to make its games available on free, over-the-air television.
