Distribution is all set for Thursday Night Football. After agreeing to a five-year deal with Fox earlier this year, the NFL has announced it has renewed its partnership with Amazon for streaming rights to the game.
The renewal shouldn’t come as a surprise after Amazon was satisfied with their first season carrying NFL games. “We were definitely pleased with the way things played out,” said Jim DeLorenzo, the head of Amazon Sports, regarding the 11 Thursday Night Football games streamed by Amazon in 2017.
2017 streaming rights cost Amazon $50 million after Twitter paid the NFL $10 million for the same rights the season prior. Financial terms of Amazon’s new pact with the NFL were not released, but according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, the e-commerce giant will pay $65 million per year to stream 11 Thursday Night Football games during each of the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Games will be available to Amazon Prime subscribers and free to consumers on Twitch for the first time.
“Our customers love to stream football,” said Jeff Blackburn, SVP of business development and entertainment at Amazon. “We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with the NFL and offer Prime members another two seasons of Thursday Night Football.”
$65 million per year is a drop in the bucket for Amazon who made $1.6 billion in profit during the first three months of 2018. The deal with the NFL also comes on the same day Amazon announced it will be raising its cost of a Prime subscription from $99 to $119 beginning May 11th. This represents the first price increase for Prime since jumping from $79 to $99 in 2014.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
