Amazon Prime Video will reportedly stream its first-ever National Football League playoff game next season, according to a report from Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal. NBCUniversal streamed an NFL playoff game exclusively on Peacock as part of a three-game Wild Card weekend across its platforms and attained 23 million viewers, rendering it the most-streamed event contest in NFL history. Moreover, the game accounted for 30% of internet traffic that day and was the most-streamed event in United States history. The company reportedly aimed to keep the game next year; however, a clause in Amazon’s deal with the league that allows it to stream Thursday Night Football provided an opportunity to claim the matchup.
There were criticisms levied towards NBCUniversal and the NFL for requiring users to subscribe to a streaming service to watch the matchup. While the feed of the broadcast was available in local television markets for the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, other viewers from around the world needed to pay to watch. The Peacock game was part of the subject within testimony on Capitol Hill that included Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports; John Ourand, sports correspondent for Puck News; and Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV.
According to a subsequent report from The Wall Street Journal, subscription analytics firm Antenna measured 2.8 million signups to Peacock in a three-day period. This stretch accounted for the largest single subscriber-acquisition moment the service had ever measured. The most recent earnings report from Comcast Corporation pegged the service with 31 million subscribers with an accompanying $2.75 billion loss.
Amazon is on the precipice of its third year exclusively streaming Thursday Night Football games, recently delivering an average of 11.86 million viewers across its lineup of games, a 24% increase in the category compared to the season prior. The OTT streaming provider also experienced gains in viewership within its P18-34 demographic and P18-49 demographics, along with an average stream peak viewership of 13.93 million.
Prime Video was the home of the NFL’s first-ever exclusive Black Friday Football matchup, which ended up averaging 9.61 million viewers when the New York Jets faced the Miami Dolphins. The game did not require a Prime Video subscription for viewers to watch, permitting all users with a free Amazon account to consume the game. This is something that remains unknown regarding the reported exclusive NFL playoff game next season. The property also gained flex scheduling abilities on a trial basis prior to the season which can be utilized twice between Week 13 and Week 17.
Play-by-play announcer Al Michaels confirmed that he will return to the broadcast next season in an interview with Mike Freeman of USA TODAY, which would likely line him up to call the matchup next season. He has been joined by color commentator Kirk Herbstreit and sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung since the launch of the Thursday Night Football property on Amazon Prime Video before the 2021 season.
