NFL, Amazon renew streaming partnership
April 30, 2018
By Nik Roseveare
The National Football League (NFL) has renewed its exclusive partnership with Amazon Prime Video to deliver a live OTT digital stream of Thursday Night Football to a global audience across devices during the 2018 and 2019 NFL Seasons.
Amazon Prime will stream the 11 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by FOX, which will also be simulcast on NFL Network and distributed in Spanish on FOX Deportes, once again securing the league’s “Tri-Cast” model of broadcast (FOX), cable (NFL Network, FOX Deportes), and digital (Amazon Prime Video) distribution.
The Thursday Night Football games will be made available to the over 100 million Amazon Prime members worldwide in over 200 countries and territories. The NFL and Amazon will also collaborate on additional NFL content opportunities and enhanced fan viewing experiences, including making the games available on Twitch’s interactive social video service.
“Amazon was a tremendous partner for Thursday Night Football in 2017 and as we continue our mission of delivering NFL games to fans whether they watch on television or on digital platforms, we are excited to work with them again for the next two seasons,” said Brian Rolapp, Chief Media and Business Officer for the NFL. “Having over 100 million Amazon Prime members provides a massive platform to distribute Thursday Night Football digitally, not only to our fans in the United States but also around the world.”
“Our customers love to stream football — last year, we successfully debuted NFL Thursday Night Football on Prime Video in the US and around the world,” added Jeff Blackburn, Senior Vice President Business Development & Entertainment at Amazon. “We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with the NFL and offer Prime members another two seasons of Thursday Night Football.”
The 2018 Thursday Night Football schedule kicks off Week 2 when the Baltimore Ravens visit the Cincinnati Bengals on September 13th in an AFC North divisional match.
The NFL is the most valuable content in all of sports and entertainment with nine of television’s 10 most-watched programmes of the calendar year in 2017.