The debut of Thursday Night Football was a ratings success for Amazon Prime Video. The game, which featured Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers delivered 11.8 million viewers exclusively to the streaming service.
In addition to viewers on the stream, another 602,000 watched in Los Angeles on FOX 11, while 555,000 watched in Kansas City on KSHB 41, the local NBC affiliate. Amazon’s feed of the game was also available to more than 300,000 bars and businesses through a partnership with DirecTV. Altogether, Amazon averaged a total audience of 15.3 million according to a company press release.
“By every measure, Thursday Night Football on Prime Video was a resounding success,” shared Jay Marine, Amazon’s global head of its sports division, in an internal note to staff.
Marine continued ”Our first exclusive TNF broadcast delivered the most watched night of primetime in the U.S. in the history of Prime Video. This is a massive achievement. During our TNF broadcast, we also saw the biggest three hours for U.S. Prime sign ups ever in the history of Amazon – including Prime Day, Cyber Monday, and Black Friday. Our measurement shows that the audience numbers exceeded all of our expectations for viewership.”
Last year’s debut of Thursday Night Football, which was exclusive to NFL Network, produced 7 million viewers. The debut of Thursday Night Football on FOX last year, which was simulcast on NFL Network, generated 15 million viewers.
Amazon Prime Video promised advertisers an audience of at least 12.5 million viewers, down from the 20 million viewers FOX would experience during its peak. According to AdAge, Amazon was asking for $500,000 per 30-second commercial, compared to the $635,000 FOX averaged.
Coverage sucks. Play on the field is not in sync with commentators. Plays on the field are out of focus on many of the plays. Coverage needs to go back to ABC, CBS or NBC.