Amazon is ready for prime time. At least that’s the NFL’s belief. The league has chosen Amazon Prime Video to become the new exclusive home for Thursday Night Football. It represents the biggest sports rights deal the league has done to date with a streaming service.
According to reports, Amazon is paying roughly $1 billion dollars per year to partner with the NFL. The deal is expected to officially begin in 2023 and will be in place for 10 years.
There are various layers to the agreement, but the key takeaway is that the NFL recognized the importance of expanding the online availability of its games, while still protecting its long standing and successful traditional media partnerships with FOX Sports and ESPN.
This isn’t Amazon’s first rodeo with the NFL. The company has been streaming NFL games for the past four years. An interesting part of the arrangement calls for over-the-air broadcast networks to air Amazon’s Thursday Night Football games in the cities of the participating teams. To clear up any confusion, this means that if you want to watch your local team play on a Thursday night and you’re not an Amazon Prime or Prime Video subscriber, you’ll still be able to watch the game either with a paid TV service such as cable or a digital antenna.
