In a great display of diversifying your product, the NFL will make one of their Wild Card games available to viewers on CBS, CBS All Access, Nickelodeon and Amazon Prime Video.
The NFL Playoff game will serve the traditional network audience, reach younger viewers on cable and cord-cutters through two streaming options. First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the game set to be carried by Amazon is one of two recently added playoff contests. With the NFL’s decision to expand the playoffs from 12 to 14 teams this season, the extra Wild Card games were handed to CBS and NBC.
In April, it was announced the CBS game would also be simulcast by popular kid’s channel Nickelodeon, now Amazon Prime Video joins the distribution list. For Amazon, the addition of a playoff simulcast is part of a continued relationship with the NFL that already sees them own streaming rights for Thursday Night Football.
Amazon’s current rights deal to stream 11 TNF games annually runs through the 2022 season. The deal was extended in April and now includes one Wild Card simulcast and one regular season broadcast exclusive to Amazon, which is expected to be one of the NFL’s Saturday night games during Week 15 or 16.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
