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Amazon has exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football

Nov 16, 2022   •   by Cynthia Madison   •   Source: Sponsored Post   •   eye-icon 181 views

Starting in 2022, Amazon has confirmed they will begin streaming Thursday Night Football, the NFL games broadcast primarily on Thursday nights at 8:15 Eastern Time as of the current year. Previously, the company announced it would begin streaming games in 2023. Amazon is paying no less than $1 billion yearly to secure NFL streaming exclusivity outside broadcasting networks. The agreement has been set for 11 years, so the multinational giant is set to be involved with the NFL for a long time.

 

But what are the implications of this move, and how will it affect the streaming market? Let’s have a closer look.

 

Pioneering agreement 

Earlier this year, Amazon made history as the first streaming provider to carry a weekly National Football League game package. According to sources, Amazon has long intended to have an 11-year package that provides them exclusive streaming rights but waited for a month to allow the deal between Fox and the NFL to end contractually.

 

When it comes to sports streaming, it’s clear that Americans are huge fans, with figures showing that 33% of viewers consider themselves avid fans of the NFL games. Given the numbers, it’s clear that Amazon’s deal will be lucrative. Marie Donoghue, vice president of global sports video at Amazon, has officially announced that Prime members will be able to watch Thursday Night Football in 2022, a year earlier than it was previously announced. She has further stated that the games offer a certain degree of prestige for the platform, as it is the only one that allows viewers access to the United States’ most popular sport.

 

As of now, Amazon Prime Video has surpassed 200 million subscribers. Membership is relatively affordable, at $8.99 per month. However, you can also have it included in the Prime package, which costs $14.99 per month or $139 yearly. Now, with the inclusion of the NFL games in the list of programs you can watch, it’s almost certain that a higher influx of new subscribers will follow.

 

The benefits of Amazon 

The first to benefit from this business agreement is, of course, Amazon. Representatives are sure there’s no better choice for streaming the games and are confident in Amazon’s ability to rise to the challenge better than competitors. One of the main concerns is the sheer size of the event, but some have pointed out that Amazon is more than up to the task.

 

For example, the company recently produced the highly-anticipated The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a series taking place in Tolkien’s world and depicting events set thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. The series had a whopping budget of over $1 billion, and despite concerns at the time it will end up being a fiasco, Amazon has proved detractors wrong and successfully released the show.

 

The main benefits for the company are increased Prime membership numbers, as well as increased engagement from existing members. Not only will more people sign up, lured in by the popularity of the NFL games, those that are already subscribers but haven’t been on Prime Video in a while are very likely to approach it with newfound interest.

 

Another critical aspect of driving scores of audience members to stream football games is the advertisement. Amazon has vowed that advertisers will reach over 12 million viewers per game. With around 80 million households that have used Amazon Prime Video over the past year, roughly the same amount as those that have a pay-tv service, it’s clear that Amazon is set to be a fierce competitor on the market and potentially become a leading figure in the niche over the next few years.

 

Amazon’s streaming deal also signals that football is entering the future, for better or worse. Over the past few years, streaming has increasingly become the preferred method of consuming media for the public, to the extent that it has, in some instances, nearly completely replaced its predecessors. It’s even more relevant given how virtually every team has a TNF game each season, so no matter which fanbase you belong to, the streaming change will impact you directly. While this sounds like good news for younger fans, some older viewers may be uncomfortable with the change. But rest assured, Amazon promised they would look into solutions that can accommodate all types of viewers. While the details of how exactly this will occur are not yet clear, further clarification will undoubtedly be provided in the near future.

 

The implications for everyone else 

No significant change comes without effects and repercussions for everyone involved in the transition. For the individual viewer, the main issue is that you need to subscribe to watch the NFL from now on. While many people are already registered, many aren’t for several reasons. Earlier this year, Amazon announced that annual membership prices are climbing from $119 to $139, a change that can seem simply not worth it for many fans.

 

This is a case of the individual consumer making a choice, and while for some, that value might not seem like much, others will consider it rather pricey. Costs increase because many people don’t follow a single sport and love watching many. This means shelling out subscriptions across multiple platforms to watch baseball, Premier League, or the UFC. It can quickly become too much for many budgets.

 

Media companies are also observing the changes with growing concern and apprehension, worried about their position. Dwindling viewership numbers are not something any network wants to deal with, but it can be difficult to avoid in the current context. The tech giant has many more resources and funds at its disposal, making competition all the more unlikely to keep up.

 

On their end, Amazon has reportedly warned that they expect a reduced number of viewers to tune in. However, this isn’t likely to impact the company as it is a common-sense assertion. Naturally, a program widely available over traditional cable being switched to a streaming platform will not record the same engagement from the get-go. More likely than not, Amazon has accounted for this fact before putting in their bid for the streaming rights. One of the advantages, however, is that there’s a higher chance that the younger generations will become more interested in football.

 

Amazon is thinking of the future, and its agreement with the TNF is clear proof of assessing its place on the market over the next decade. By securing the deal, they ensure they’re one step ahead in fostering and maintaining relevance in the long term.

 

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