After improving its overall viewership by 24% in its second season with a marginally better lineup of NFL games, Amazon Prime Video hopes to keep its Thursday Night Football momentum going this fall with what appears to be a rock-solid third campaign. 

“This is our best schedule yet," declared Jay Marine, VP of Prime Video and global head of sports and ads for Amazon. 

Marine has the receipts. Twelve of the 16 regular-season National Football League matchups presented on Thursday Night Football this fall will feature divisional rivalries. 

TNF has the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs only once, but in the package's big "Black Friday" showdown, and against the Chiefs' long-loathed division rival Las Vegas Raiders. The package will see the runner-up San Francisco 49ers twice, both times in division rivalry games.

There will be plenty of star power, too. Controversial right-wing extremist quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his New York Jets will appear twice, while the Chicago Bears and No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams will be showcased on TNF's last regular season game. 

And while TNF's inaugural 2022 season streamed so many irrelevant games featuring non-contending teams that even play-by-play announcer Al Michaels compared promoting the package to selling used cars, this year's schedule only includes three contests with two teams that failed to make the playoffs the year before. And one of those games includes the Seattle Seahawks, which missed out on the postseason via tiebreaker. 

Oh, and Amazon coughed up big money to secure a Wild Card postseason exclusive. 

Complete 2024 Thursday Night Football Schedule (all times EDT):

TNF Tonight pregame coverage begins each Thursday at 7 p.m.

* Preseason game – Thursday, Aug. 22: Indianapolis Colts at Cincinnati Bengals

Week 2 - Sept. 12: Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins

Week 3 - Sept. 19: New England Patriots at New York Jets

Week 4 - Sept. 26: Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants

Week 5 - Oct. 3: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Atlanta Falcons

Week 6 - Oct. 10: San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks

Week 7 - Oct. 17: Denver Broncos at New Orleans Saints

Week 8 - Oct. 24: Minnesota Vikings at Los Angeles Rams

Week 9 - Oct. 31: Houston Texans at New York Jets

Week 10 - Nov. 7: Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens

Week 11 - Nov. 14: Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles

Week 12 – Nov. 21: Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns

Week 13 (Black Friday) - Friday, Nov. 29: Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs

Week 14 - Dec. 5: Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions

Week 15 - Dec. 12: Los Angeles Rams at San Francisco 49ers

Week 16 - Dec. 19: Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati Bengals

Week 17 - Dec. 26: Seattle Seahawks at Chicago Bears

** NFL Wild Card Playoff Game: TBD 

Amazon Prime Video, which stream’s the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football package, will get an NFL playoff game to stream next season, a source confirmed.

Comcast NBCUniversal’s Peacock paid $110 million to stream an NFL playoff game for the first time last month. The game attracted 23 million viewers, making it the most streamed program in U.S. history.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, Peacock wanted to stream a playoff game again, but Amazon’s contract with the NFL gave it superseding rights to stream the game.

Amazon was offered the game that was streamed by Peacock, but opted out. Amazon did stream the NFL's first Black Friday game after Thanksgiving last year.

Amazon and the NFL declined to comment.

The news comes as more sports migrate from broadcast and cable to streaming–something fans and regulators have mixed feelings about. 

Earlier this week, The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they were forming a joint venture that would stream their linear channels that have sports programming. 

Two NFL rights holders, NBCU and Paramount Global were not included in the new sports streaming service.

There is no offseason for Amazon Ads following what it saw as a successful second season of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video.

At last week’s CES conference in Las Vegas, Amazon was already talking to advertisers about next season and planning to upgrade the advanced advertising products that appeared during the game, Amy McDevitt, sports brand partnership lead at Amazon Ads,  told Broadcasting+Cable.

The company is also thinking ahead to streaming the National Women’s Soccer League in the spring and NASCAR next year as Amazon expands the sports programming it can offer advertisers.

”There really is no offseason here,” McDevitt said. “We’re at CES having conversations and getting people to start thinking about what they want to do in live sports next year.”

Also Read: Game On: Sinclair, Diamond Sports, Amazon in Deal To Keep Regional Sports Networks in Business 

In the just-finished NFL season, ratings for Thursday Night Football jumped 24% to 11.86 million viewers per game. At the same time, Thursday Night Football continued to attract coveted viewers in the 18-to-34 demographic. Its audience was seven years younger than linear NFL telecasts.

The games also attracted 4.1 million cord-cutters, up 55%.

“For advertisers, it’s a great opportunity to reach people that you can’t find anywhere else,” McDevitt said.

Advertisers turned out for Amazon. More than half of the sponsors of Thursday Night Football were new to Prime Video and about 20% were new to advertising during NFL games.

“They’re dipping their toe in the water on the NFL,” she said. “I’m sure the NFL is excited about it, too.”

Working with measurement and analytics company EDO, Amazon found that advertising on Thursday Night Football was effective, generating a 70% higher search rate than ads in primetime on broadcast and cable and 59% higher ads on NFL telecasts on linear networks.

During the season, Amazon also streamed the NFL’s first Black Friday game on the busiest shopping day of the year. The game drew a unique audience with 24% of its viewers watching a game on Prime Video for the first time, according to Nielsen, while 31% did not watch any of the NFL games played on Thanksgiving Day.

“The unique thing that we bring to market is the ability to connect content with commerce for brands,” McDevitt said. Many brands worked with Amazon to create ads with football themes, some incorporating Thursday Night Football talent, to be more contextually relevant to football. Last season those brands included State Farm and General Mills.

“We’ve doubled the work we did in that space in 2023, and I can only imagine that we’ll do more of it next season,” she said.

Engagement with interactive ads on Black Friday was 250% higher than the games Amazon streamed on Thursday nights. Amazon’s shoppable interactive video ads on Black Friday had 4 times higher engagement than ads with QR codes for brands that ran both interactive ads and ads with QR codes.

Amazon Ads is looking to boost the effectiveness of its ads next season.

Its interactive ads were shoppable on Fire TV devices last season. Next season, fans will be able to add products directly to their Amazon card from the telecast with a single click.

Amazon is also upgrading its audience-based creative, which enabled advertisers to run commercials aimed at different target audiences within the same 30-second commercial slot. Next season targeting capabilities will be expanded and brands will be able to exclude specific audiences if they choose to.

McDevitt suggested that some advertisers might also want to work with Amazon to keep cameras rolling after the game while the winning team is celebrating leading into Prime’s post-game show.

“We’re lucky, because we can provide a lot of optionality,” she said. “We’ve got alternate streams, which have been really fun to play around with.”

Amazon will be creating ad programs designed for the NWSL and NASCAR that build on Thursday Night Football programs.

“We’ll create a bespoke opportunity that fits within soccer,” McDevitt said. “I know we will want to get the sport right. We want to create something unique for all those properties and make and make sure that the fans feel we’re authentic within the environment.”

McDevitt said Amazon is seeing a lot of advertiser interest in women’s sports. Amazon is in the process of formalizing what it will bring to market.

“We’re very excited to not only engage with our advertising customers, but champion women’s sports and create interesting brand experiences around that,” she said.

She added that planning has also begun for Amazon’s NASCAR races, which won’t start until 2025.

Unlike football, soccer has few timeouts during play, which means most commercials will run at halftime. Auto racing also offers few breaks for commercials.

“Our production team is really talented and we’ll continue to work with them to figure out how we can bring more content to the sports fan,” McDevitt said. “It could involve partnering with somebody on a break takeover, where we keep one eye on what’s happening on the field as we’re telling an advertising message at the same time.”

Amazon will be encouraging holiday shopping during Prime Video’s NFL telecast on Black Friday (November 24). 

While Prime Video streams the New York Jets taking on the Miami Dolphins on the day after Thanksgiving, Amazon said it will be offering special opportunities to shop with special deals and limited quantity product drops from brands including TCL, Dyson, Lego and Nintendo. 

“Be sure to keep an eye out for exciting deals appearing on the screen as you watch, with new deals available each quarter during the game, as well as before kickoff and after the game ends,” Amazon said in a blog post.

Being able to sell products through Amazon is a key ingredient for many of the advertisers on the Thursday Night Football telecasts.

Viewers won’t need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to watch the game. Anyone with an Amazon account will be able to stream the Black Friday Game. 

Amazon said that the Black Friday game will feature the Thursday Night Football announcing crew, including play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, analyst Kirk Herbstreit and reporter Kaylee Hartung.

Prime Video will present an extended pregame show featuring hosted by Charissa Thompson with Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth.

Chef David Chang will be on hand to check in on tailgating at the stadium, provide tips on what to do with leftovers and to create a culinary surprise for the player of the game.

After the game, Garth Brooks will headline Amazon Music Live from his new bar in Nashville. The performance will also be available on Amazon’s Twitch streaming service.

The shift of sports to streaming is having an effect on broadband networks.

Speaking on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday, Comcast president Michael Cavanagh said that peak broadband network traffic has shifted from Sunday nights to Thursdays now that Thursday Night Football streams exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

People streaming the NFL game represent 25% of all internet traffic on Thursday nights, Cavanagh said.

Also Read: Comcast Stock Drops as Cable Company Loses More Ground on Home Broadband in Q3, Sees Slowing Mobile Growth

Broadband networks “will be put to the test as this transition of sports to streaming continues,” he said.

Cavanagh said a big challenge for the industry will come in January when Comcast’s Peacock exclusively streams an NFL playoff game.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said the shift will be good for the company's broadband business.

Roberts said he believes that over time all sports will find their way to streaming. 

"That's going to require more bandwidth and create an opportunity  for us to have a superior product in the market," Roberts said.

Peacock, which claims to have the most live-streaming sports among direct-to-consumer services, has been adding to its sports portfolio. In addition to the NFL, it added Big Ten college sports and has English Premier League soccer.

Amazon is indeed interested in poaching NBA rights from incumbents Disney/ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a Front Office Sports report, which cites anonymous sources.

According to the site, Amazon, which is averaging an impressive 12.9 million viewers per Thursday Night Football installment this season, wants to create a dedicated Tuesday or Thursday night slot for live NBA coverage. 

This revelation (confirmation?) comes after an "industry conference" last year, during which NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he was “fascinated” with what Amazon Prime Video was doing with its 11-year, $1-billion-a-season commitment to the Thursday Night Football package, which has a median viewer age that is seven years younger than the typical NFL TV audience. 

With the NBA's current national TV deals with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery expiring after the 2024-25 season, the league will reportedly seek between $50 billion - $75 billion combined for its next long-term national TV agreements. 

Eleven months ago, fiscally conservative WBD CEO David Zaslav indicated that his conglomerate might balk on a marked increase to the $1.2 billion-a-season rate it pays the pro basketball league for TNT's TV rights, pointedly remarking, "We don't have to have the NBA."

Meanwhile, Disney disclosed financial data last week showing that ESPN profits are down 8% this year alone. 

Both Disney and Warner have exclusive negotiating rights with the league through early next year. And Warner just launched a $9.99 live-sports extension for its Max subscription streaming platform, with the NBA at the center of it. But there's no guarantee that either media company will be able to "match up" with the length and the heft that the NBA might demand, at least not in a way that maintains the current paradigm of only two national TV rights partners. 

According Front Office's sources, the NBA could negotiate deals with three to five media rights partners this time around, all with the goal of maximizing rights fees for its next deal.

Amazon is certainly in the race. Amazon Prime Video VP and head of sports, Jay Marine said earlier this year that the company will continue to pursue NBA and other live sports rights in an “aggressive” yet “rational” way.

“Sports are unique; they are uniquely viable,” Marine said. “Because of that, they’ve also been uniquely expensive. Having said that, they can do things that other things can’t because it’s a guaranteed audience.”

Notably, Amazon has already secured a multi-year partnership with the NBA to broadcast live games on Prime Video in Brazil.

Amazon will undoubtedly have competition, with Comcast recently said to be in the NBA rights hunt, as well. 

Streaming viewership fell for the second-straight month in September as football season gave broadcast a big boost, according to Nielsen’s monthly summary.

Netflix viewing was down 5%. Paramount Plus and Peacock showed similar declines.

In contrast, broadcast gained viewing for the second consecutive month. Volume was up 13%, raising over-the-air TV’s share of total viewing to 23%, up from 20.4% in August.

Nielsen said broadcast posted increases of more than 30% in the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics, which are still important to advertisers.

Sports viewing on broadcast rose 360% with the NFL and college football seasons in full swing. 

Cable saw a 25.5% increase in September, but overall cable viewing fell 1.1% from August and cable’s share of total viewing fell to 29.8% from 30.2%.

Streaming viewing was down 1.7% from August and streaming share fell to 37.5% from 38.3%. 

Netflix viewing fell despite the streamer having the top three title in streaming, with Suits, Virgin River and One Piece.

Some streaming services posted gains in September. Amazon Prime Video was up 7.5%, thanks to Thursday Night Football. Tubi was up 4.3% and The Roku Channel was up 1.4%.

YouTube remained the top streamer with a 9% share, down from 9.1% in August. Netflix’s share was 7.8%, compared to 8.2%, followed by Prime Video at 3.6%, up from 3.4%; Hulu at 3.6%, unchanged; Disney Plus at 1.9%, off from 2%; Tubi at 1.3%, unchanged; Max at 1.2%, down from 1.3%; Roku Channel at 1.1%, unchanged; Peacock at 1.1%, down from 1.2%; Paramount Plus at 1%, down from 1.1%; and Pluto TV at 0.8%, off from 0.9%.

Total TV usage was flat compared to a year ago, Nielsen said.

Linear streaming via multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) or virtual MVPD apps represented 5.7% of total television usage in September, the highest total so far this year. Nielsen counts streaming of linear network programming within the broadcast or cable categories and not as part of streaming viewership.

Amazon Prime Video said it has hired chef David Chang to cook up food related features for its Thursday Night Football telecasts.

Chang will profile restaurants and chefs from the teams’ hometowns, visit the best local tailgates at NFL stadiums, and celebrate how food is a part of game day.

Chang’s segments will air throughout select TNF games this season starting October 5 before the Chicago Bears game against the Washington Commanders.

Also Read: Amazon Kicks Off Season 2 of ‘TNF’ With Key Sponsors Verizon, Subway, State Farm, JC Penney, Allstate

Chang will also contribute to the first-ever NFL Black Friday game telecast on November 24. 

“David Chang is an avid NFL fan and we are thrilled to bring his unique talents, personality, and culinary expertise to Thursday Night Football,” said Mike Muriano, executive producer of Live Sports for Prime Video. “Food and football are such a big part of the fan experience—so, to have someone of David’s caliber celebrate fans and put his spin on the role food plays on gameday culture will be an exciting addition to our broadcast.”

In addition to being an award-winning chef, Cahag is an entrepreneur and its Majordomo Media will be involved in creating the segments.

“I’m a massive sports fan, and I’ve always believed that when people cheer for their teams, they’re also cheering for their hometowns,” said Chang. “I’m beyond thrilled to bring some of that passion to Thursday Night Football and to shine light on the cultures, foods, and gameday rituals that fill fans with pride about their city.”

A convincing 30-12 win by the Super Bowl-contending San Francisco 49ers over the New York Giants on Thursday generated an average of 13.92 million viewers for Amazon Prime Video, according to Nielsen National TV Ratings, a 26% bump over the streaming company’s second NFL Thursday Night Football game last season. 

In fact, after a record-breaking first TNF game of the season last week, the franchise is averaging 14.48 million viewers, up 21% over Amazon's first two games last year … and 71% over 2021, when the first two Thursday-night games were on NFL Network. 

TNF is up 51% so far over last year's full-season average of 9.58 million viewers. 

Amazon is in the second year of a multiyear license with the NFL and is paying the league $1 billion a season for the rights. 

The TNF franchise continues to skew young relative to the rest of the league's TV coverage — 49% of Thursday’s audience came from the 18-49 demo, and the average viewer age was seven years younger than the NFL averages on linear networks. 

Amazon says its season-two Thursday Night Football opener not only produced the biggest live-football audience ever for its Prime Video platform, but also an all-time streaming high for an NFL game, with viewing on Twitch and NFL Plus factored in. 

Citing “panel-only” Nielsen National TV Ratings, Amazon said the NFC matchup between the Super Bowl runner-up Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings averaged 15.1 million viewers across all digital and linear platforms, up more than 16% over last year’s Kansas City Chiefs-Los Angeles Chargers TNF opener. 

(Total viewership actually increased to 16.6% with Amazon's first-party ratings data included. The MRC is currently reviewing a plan to combine Nielsen and Amazon's audience data for future live streams.)

Thursday’s game, according to Nielsen, delivered 3.5 million viewers age 18-34 across platforms and 7.6 million watchers in the 18-49 cohort. The total audience had a median age of 47, which is seven years younger than the typical NFL TV audience. 

Indeed, Amazon has achieved a core objective of the league to skew younger. 

Still, Amazon has been anxious to tout the audience potential of TNF with it as anchor rights holder (paying about $1 billion a season), ever since last season ended and reports surfaced that the overall ratings performance was down 41%. 

Amazon has disputed the accuracy of this data on myriad points, starting with how Nielsen gathers its data. 

Nielsen said it would start factoring in Amazon’s own first-party data and then changed its mind, following complaints by the Video Advertising Board, among other constituents. 

Amazon Prime Video will kick off its second season as the exclusive national outlet for Thursday Night Football with presenting sponsors for its pregame, postgame and halftime programming.

Before the game Prime Video will stream TNF Tonight presented by Verizon and TNF Kickoff presented by Subway.

The State Farm Halftime Show will appear between the second and third quarters. After the game, The JC Penney Postgame Show will appear, followed by TNF Nightcap presented by Allstate.

The new season of Prime Video’s  NFL football on Thursdays will have new features designed to bring fans closer to the action.

They start with native high dynamic range (HDR) production, providing viewers  greater contrast and more vivid colors.

A Key Plays feature uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide fans with an ability to view in-game highlights and key moments on demand while watching TNF on Prime Video. The bank of pivotal moments builds as the game progresses.

Rapid Recap is for fans who join the live stream in progress and want to catch up on the action they missed.

X-Ray on Prime Video provides layers of information and allows viewers to track advanced Next Gen Stats powered by Amazon Web Services, watch on-demand replays enhanced with payer performance metrics, show official NFL merchandise and predict the game outcome via fan polls.

Prime Video will also have a Prime Vision with Next Gen State alternative feed ot the game for all 16 of its regular season matchups. Through a combination of on-screen graphic overlays, AI-driven insights, Next Gen Stats powered by AWS and distinctive vantage points from Amazon’s All-22 camera angle, fans will get a unique view of live NFL action, Prime said.

The Prime Vision telecast will feature Defensive Alerts to track the pre-snao movement of key defensive players and Prime Targets to help viewers find open receivers. There will also be a 4th Down Decision Guide to track where the ball needs to be in order for a team to “go for it” and Field Goal Target Zones to show how likely it is for a kick to be successful.

Thursday Night Football starts with the Philadelphia Eagles playing the Minnesota Vikings.

Nielsen today told clients that it will not be using first-party data from Amazon in the ratings used for buying and selling commercials during NFL Thursday Night Football.

Nielsen had a meeting with the Media Rating Council on August 30 about getting accreditation for its plan to integrate Amazon data into its already accredited panel-based rating system.

The MRC had questions about Nielsen’s methodology and it was not accredited.

"Our work with Nielsen on the integration of first party data sources into its national measurements is ongoing.  MRC has not accredited these, and the official status remains “in process," the MRC said in a statement.

While the Amazon data is not included in the panel-based measurement, which Nielsen has designated as its approved product to be used as an ad-buying currency, the Amazon data is being included in Nielsen’s big-data audience stream.

Nielsen had planned for its big-data stream to be currency in this upfront, but reversed course earlier this year. The big-data stream remains unaccredited by the MRC.

Also Read: Nielsen: VAB Complaints About Measuring Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ Are ‘Misleading and Inaccurate’

The decision means that upfront ad buys based on panel data will be stewarded based on the same data.

“As Nielsen works to modernize media measurement by integrating census-level data sets, including first-party data, we remain committed to adhering to the MRC's measurement standards,” Nielsen said in a statement. “Our aim is to ensure the process with which we introduce new ways of measuring audiences is inclusive of client feedback and held to the highest standards. For now, Nielsen’s panel-only National TV service will remain the currency of record. First-party data will be included in Big Data in National measurement figures, which are available to all customers separately.”

Nielsen will continue to work to incorporate big data — obtained from set-top boxes and smart TVs as well as streaming network servers — into its ratings, the company told clients. It said the integration could be accomplished in as little as two months.

Sean Cunningham, CEO of the Video Advertising Bureau, which represents programmers and distributors, had opposed the inclusion of Amazon data in Nielsen’s TNF ratings.

Including Amazon data would boost its viewership totals, giving it an advantage over the other networks that broadcast NFL football and believe that Nielsen undercounts their audiences. 

“I think everyone wins,” Cunningham said of Nielsen’s decision. 

First-party data helps networks understand how to calibrate the audience shortfall in Nielsen’s data, Cunningham said. 

“The key will all of this is that it’s done in an extremely well-lit manner in which all the details are completely transparent to both buyers and sellers,” he said.

Nielsen dismissed the Video Advertising Bureau’s complaints about plans to use first-party data from Amazon to measure viewing of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video.

“We recognize this is a period of exceptional change in which all parties are at different stages of their own evolution,” Nielsen CEO of audience measurement business Karthik Rao said in a letter to VAB president and CEO Sean Cunningham. “However, the search for perfection risks further delaying the measurement innovations that will ultimately help drive the industry into the future. We believe that our principled, transparent and open approach to integrating first-party data requires all publishers to play by the same rules and will accelerate the industry’s move toward a streaming-first world.”

Cunningham and members of the VAB complained that using Amazon data would “tip the scale” in favor of TNF and leave other NFL broadcasts with fewer viewers counted. They asked Nielsen to hold off on using the Amazon data to measure Thursday Night Football for advertisers.

Amazon’s first-party data gave TNF a larger audience than Nielsen’s figures.

Rao said that Nielsen has been engaged with the industry — including VAB members — about integrating first-party data when it measures live streaming. He also dismissed specific complaints about Nielsen’s measurement of TNF as “misleading and inaccurate.”

The letter included details explanations of why the variances the VAB was finding in Nielsen data were either smaller than the VAB found or not caused by the use of Amazon data.

Nielsen has had a series of meetings about measuring sports live streams since 2021, Rao said. In March, Nielsen shared a document outlining requirements for integrating first-party streaming data.

“Clients other than Amazon did not immediately decide to take action, but we remain hopeful that they will in light of our progress and the level of engagement from other NFL programming/advertising competitors,” Rao said. 

“While Amazon is the first integration partner, we have been in active discussions with many of our clients for years about incorporating their first-party data for more accurate measurement of audiences across all live program types,“ he said. “We look forward to bringing more such integrations into our measurement in the near future.”

The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), representing television networks, asked Nielsen not to go forward with its plan to incorporate viewing data from Amazon when coming up with the audience estimates advertisers will use to determine how much they pay for commercials on Thursday Night Football on Amazon’s Prime Video.

Last year, Nielsen’s audience figures for Thursday Night Football were smaller than Amazon’s own estimates for how many people were watching the telecasts during Prime Video’s first season as the exclusive national outlet for the NFL package. They were also well short of the ratings generated when the games were broadcast on Fox.

The VAB said using Amazon-generated first-party data gives Prime Video an unfair advantage over the networks that carry NFL games.

“We see Nielsen’s articulated NFL plans for Amazon (intended to be activated by the Sept. 7th opening of the ‘23/‘24 NFL season) as Nielsen clearly forcing changes into a highly valued, highly visible, ultra-competitive multibillion-dollar sports content arena; changes that will greatly benefit one Nielsen client (Amazon) while negatively impacting multiple Nielsen clients (all remainder NFL programmers, distributors & ad sellers),“ the VAB said in the letter, addressed to Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen Audience Measurement.

The VAB said that Nielsen’s plan “has the effect of tipping the scales in Amazon’s favor versus its NFL programming/advertising competitors.”

The VAB also pointed out a number of statistical differences between Amazon’s data and Nielsen’s own data. It noted that co-viewing of TNF on Amazon was 28% higher than all other national sports programs, on average, and that TNF scored higher in homes with traditional TV set-top boxes than other NFL games. 

“While asked by many of our major members (including NFL programmers) to justify, explain, rationalize or prove any of the above, Nielsen has not given any level of meaningful detail that proves any of it is correct,” the VAB said.

The VAB said it is in favor of using first-party data as part of measuring audiences, but it must be done the right way.

“There are significant upsides to marketers in measurement, currency, precision audience-based buying, and data-driven full-funnel marketing/analysis that the proper infusion of first-party data from as many publishers as possible will create,“ the VAB said. “Those wins will come by having all first-party ad video sell-side players playing by the same rules, all accomplished in extremely well-lit and evenly lit end-to-end processes; that is the only way to proceed that assures both the marketer wins and the best level of fair competition across publishers. We are calling on Nielsen to not go forward with its plans to unfairly force first-party data from Amazon’s TNF property into the NFL third-party data sets.”

The National Football League passed on Monday a vote by the narrowest of margins to allow Amazon to change out up to two games on its late-season Thursday Night Football schedule should they start appearing in advance to be uncompetitive matchups. 

Amazon is paying the NFL $1 billion a season for exclusive TV rights to Thursday Night Football, and the package's turkey 2022 schedule is widely believed to be a key reason why total TNF viewership was down 41% last year. 

Also read: Amazon Announces (Hopefully Improved) 2023 'Thursday Night Football' Schedule

League owners voted 24-8 to allow "flex scheduling" on Thursday nights, the lowest threshold possible for a passing vote. The Giants, Jets, Packers, Bears, Raiders, Detroit, Bengals and Steelers all voted against he measure. 

The NFL already allows flex scheduling for Sunday Night Football, and voted earlier to allow it for Monday Night Football, too. 

The rule affects weeks 13-17 of the regular season, impacting these games on the 2023 TNF schedule.

Week 13 - Nov. 30: Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys

Week 14 - Dec. 7: New England Patriots at Pittsburgh Steelers

Week 15 - Dec. 14: Los Angeles Chargers at Las Vegas Raiders

Week 16 - Dec. 21: New Orleans Saints at Los Angeles Rams

Week 17 - Dec. 28: New York Jets at Cleveland Browns 

Notably, three out of five of these games include matchups of teams that didn't make the playoffs last season, so Amazon is undoubtedly pleased. 

But there are numerous caveats:

> Amazon must provide 28 days notice if it wants to make a flex.

> No team can be compelled to play on TNF more than twice a season.

> No team can be compelled to be a road team on TNF more than once a season.

Paying $1 billion a season to license the NFL's coveted "Thursday Night Football" franchise last season, Amazon Prime Video dealt with an absolute turkey of a game schedule in year 1. 

And that showed up in the total audience performance, which was off 41% from the season prior, when many of the games where still broadcast free over the air on Fox. (Although younger demo performances turned out much better.) 

With only one game after week 8 last season matching up two eventual playoff teams, things got so uncompetitive that play-by-play announcer Al Michaels at one point described the process of making the games interesting to viewers as like selling used cars. 

At NFL meetings in March, the league toyed with a flexible schedule that would allow late-season matchups to be determined closer to their game date, giving Amazon and the NFL a chance to more carefully handpick better matchups based on a season's worth of performance data. 

That plan was ultimately nixed. The league formulated its schedule the way it had been doing it all along, and it published the results Thursday. Below are the matchups Amazon ended up receiving. 

Will Thursday nights be more competitive? Well, only five of the 16 matchups feature two teams that both made the playoffs last year, and six of the games feature no 2022 post-season contenders at all. 

There are consecutive early-season matchups that catch our eye: The first regular season "TNF" game on Sept. 14 has the NFC North defending champion Minnesota Vikings visiting the NFC East defending champion and Super Bowl runner-up Philadelphia Eagles; a week later, two more NFC teams coming off impressive playoff runs, the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers, lock up; and in week 3, the up-and-coming Detroit Lions visit the new-look post-Aaron Rodgers Green Bay Packers in an NFC Central rivalry game. 

There are a few other highlights worth mentioning: In Week 10, the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, and his new team, the Carolina Panthers visit the Chicago Bears'; there's the week 11 game between the Cincinnati Bangles and Baltimore Ravens that's a rematch of a surprisingly spry AFC first-round playoff game from January; and there are two chances to see the aging but Hall of Fame-bound Rodgers quarterback his new team, the New York Jets. (Nobody's guaranteeing anything there.) 

Other than that, there are lots of potential ... turkeys. And turkeys can't fly. Ask yourself the same question you ask every pre-season: Will the Chicago Bears ever be any good again, even with Justin Fields? Prime Video customers will be able to see the Bears twice this season, whether they want to or not.

And does anyone outside of Central Florida care to see the rebuilding Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit the perennially powerful Buffalo Bills in week 8, sans Tom Brady?

Of course, we'll have to get into the season to see how it all shakes out. Here's the schedule, as provided by Amazon:

Complete 2023 Thursday Night Football Schedule (all times EDT):

TNF Tonight pregame coverage begins each Thursday at 7 p.m.

* Preseason game – Thursday, Aug. 24: Indianapolis Colts at Philadelphia Eagles

 Week 2 - Sept. 14: Minnesota Vikings at Philadelphia Eagles

 Week 3 - Sept. 21: New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers

 Week 4 - Sept. 28: Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers

 Week 5 - Oct. 5: Chicago Bears at Washington Commanders

 Week 6 - Oct. 12: Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs

 Week 7 - Oct. 19: Jacksonville Jaguars at New Orleans Saints

 Week 8 - Oct. 26: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Buffalo Bills

 Week 9 - Nov. 2: Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers

 Week 10 - Nov. 9: Carolina Panthers at Chicago Bears

 Week 11 - Nov. 16: Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens

Week 12 (Black Friday) - Friday, Nov. 24: Miami Dolphins at New York Jets

Week 13 - Nov. 30: Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys

Week 14 - Dec. 7: New England Patriots at Pittsburgh Steelers

Week 15 - Dec. 14: Los Angeles Chargers at Las Vegas Raiders

Week 16 - Dec. 21: New Orleans Saints at Los Angeles Rams

Week 17 - Dec. 28: New York Jets at Cleveland Browns 

The New York Jets, with new quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and the Miami Dolphins will play in the first Black Friday NFL football game, which will stream on Amazon Prime Video.

The game — played the day after Thanksgiving, a big day for holiday shopping — will be streamed free to all viewers and kick off at 3 p.m. ET from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“We’re excited to be the home of the first-ever NFL Black Friday game, and what better way to kick off this new tradition than with a rivalry matchup between the Dolphins and the Jets,” Marie Donoghue, VP of global sports video at Amazon, said. “On one of the biggest shopping days of the year, we’re thrilled to offer another way to delight Amazon customers, and give all fans free access to this AFC East showdown.”

Prime Video will be starting its second season as the exclusive national carrier of Thursday Night Football.

The full Thursday Night Football schedule is expected to be released Thursday.

Amazon said its Black Friday coverage will feature its Thursday Night Football on-air team, including Emmy winners Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit, and reporter Kaylee Hartung. Charissa Thompson will serve as host for pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage, with Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez, All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman, former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and Super Bowl champion Andrew Whitworth as analysts, along with features reporter Taylor Rooks. 

There's quite a bit to unpack from entertainment business writer Kim Masters's rich plunge into Amazon's video entertainment culture, published earlier this week in The Hollywood Reporter. 

It's a deep dive into the e-commerce giant's creative acumen under Amazon and MGM studios chief Jennifer Salke ... and how a technology company with a flat, open-seating culture might not always mesh well with a Hollywood talent pool that values the perks of meritocracy and status. Top-level producers can and do get perks, but other creatives tend to be treated like cogs. 

We'll link here again, spare you the breathless aggregation, and let you immerse yourself in the real thing. But we are going to break out and highlight one real interesting point from Masters' fun, easy-scrolling 5,000-word read.

Also read: Streaming Off a Cliff: 'Thursday Night Football' Audience Dropped a Whopping 41% For the Season on Amazon

While Amazon's $1 billion-a-season acquisition of the NFL's Thursday Night Football package failed in its inaugural all-streaming season to deliver the mass-audience girth it had when it was in broadcast television, it did yield more Amazon Prime Video subscription sign-ups than any other show or movie ever presented on Prime.

Jay Marine, who heads Amazon's sports efforts, told staff in September that the first game of the 2022 TNF season between the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chief and playoff-bound Los Angeles Chargers generated “the biggest three hours for U.S. Prime sign ups ever in the history of Amazon.” 

According to Masters, this is causing some top-level Amazon decision-makers to rethink investments in shows like The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power. The most expensive series ever created, Rings produced a sizable audience, the report said, but was watched to completion by only 37% of U.S. Prime Video subscribers who started it -- a metric deemed disappointing by Amazon. 

Of the $16.7 billion spent by Amazon on all music, video and gaming entertainment last year, about $7 billion went to original series -- less than half of what Netlfix spends on originals, but still a sizable figure. 

According to Masters, some in the video entertainment industry have begun to "worry that the NFL deal has shown Amazon a way to sign up subscribers in a way that is not as unpredictable as making scripted entertainment."

Masters also suggests the live-sports vs. scripted originals juxtaposition may also be exacerbating an emerging rivalry between Salke and Mike Hopkins, the former Hulu executive who serves as senior VP for Prime Video and Amazon Studios and whose purview is live sports. 

“Her strategy is to get whatever seems hot. Mike’s vision was to cut costs on shows and get football,” a "former insider" tells Masters, describing the two very different workings styles of the two top-level executives. 

National Football League owners were unable to approve a plan to “flex” games to create better matchups for Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football and tabled discussions until May.

The league and Amazon want to prevent poor matchups in primetime and a proposal would have allowed games to be moved from Sunday to Thursday with 15 days notice.

NFL owners did approve letting teams play twice on Thursday nights. The prior rules let teams play only once on Thursday.

Amazon pays about $1 billion a year to the NFL to stream the exclusive national Thursday Night Football package.

Also Read: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Audience Dropped a Whopping 41% For the Season on Amazon

The NFL for years has flexed games from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night to improve matchups on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Starting next season, ESPN will be able to flex games from Sunday to Monday Night Football late in the season.

The number of games that can be flexed is limited because Fox and CBS each can opt to protect at least one game a week from being moved from their Sunday afternoon slots.

Some owners, including New York Giants co-owner John Mara, were concerned moving games from Sunday to Thursday — and vice versa — would inconvenience fans who buy tickets for games.

The issue was addressed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at a press conference.

“Obviously, providing the best matchups for our fans is part of what we do,“ Goodell said. “That’s a part of what I think our scheduling has always focused on. And flex has been a part of that. We are very judicious with it, and we are very careful with it. And we look at all of the impacts to that.

"So before those decisions are made, I think we average in the years we’ve been doing it, about a flex and a half a year. It can vary any particular year,“ Goodell said. “So it’s a very important thing for us to balance with the season-ticket holders and the in-stadium audience. We have millions of fans who also watch on television. Reaching them is a balance that you always strike, and making sure we do it right.”

According to Sports Business Journal, only 18 games have been flexed for Sunday Night Football since 2014, including four last season. ■ 

Amazon announced that during Thanksgiving Day weekend it will stream the National Football League game on Black Friday for free, without requiring viewers to sign up for Amazon Prime Video. 

The game — on one of the year’s busiest shopping days — is expected to kick off at 3 p.m. ET on November 24.

“We’re excited to expand our relationship with the NFL and build a new holiday tradition for our customers with the first Black Friday NFL game,” Jay Marine, VP of Prime Video and global head of sports, said. “We’re so very proud of our Thursday Night Football production and all the teams in front of and behind the camera. As families look to spend time together over the holiday weekend, we are excited to provide an opportunity for everyone to enjoy this new day of NFL action.”

Last season was the first with the national Thursday Night Football package streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime. (Games continue to be broadcast in the competing teams’ home markets.)

Also Read: Streaming Off a Cliff: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Audience Dropped a Whopping 41% For the Season on Amazon

Amazon’s TNF announcing team of Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, and Kaylee Hartung will cover the on-field action.

There will also be a pregame show hosted by Charissa Thompson with Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Richard Sherman, Andrew Whitworth, Taylor Rooks and Michael Smith.  ■

Amazon put its own spin on its first full-season "Thursday Night Football" audience ratings picture, labeling the franchise's performance among younger demos "historic."

Certainly, what Amazon and the league achieved in regard to making the overall pro football audience younger was notable and shouldn't be overlooked.

Last week, several platforms, including Next TV, reported that the overall audience for the NFL's Thursday night games package fell a "whopping" 41% in its first exclusive year on Amazon Prime Video vs. the 2021 season, when the Fox Broadcast Network shared it with the NFL Network, Amazon and various local stations.

"TNF" averaged 9.6 million viewers on Amazon vs. 16.2 million last season.

Amazon staunchly objects to this narrative for two reasons:

For one, one of the comparable 2021 games -- a late-season matchup that drew 28 million viewers -- was actually broadcasted by Fox on a Saturday. Factoring out that performance, the overall 2021 "TNF" average was 13.3 million viewers.

Secondly, Amazon notes the decidedly rosy picture of younger demos, with adults 18-34 averaging 2.11 million per game, up by 11% year over year. "TNF" averaged 4.7 million viewers among the all-important 18-49 demographic, and the package beat everything in broadcast and cable this season on Thursday night 15 times.

Specifically, Amazon's "TNF" coverage among men age 18-34 was up over 18% vs. 2021 and was the package's largest performance in that demo since 2014.

Youth Movement

Was anything about it "historic"? It was probably more in the realm of "predictable" that the overall audience would drop significantly for a franchise that was removed from what was primarily broadcast television and moved to subscription streaming.

And it was perhaps just as predictable that streaming the games -- and putting a younger football voice in the booth in the form of Kirk Herbstreit -- would result in much better performance in younger demos.

This was probably all a happy tradeoff for the NFL, which has been looking for streaming partners ... and certainly like everyone in media, wants to get younger.

And overall, younger "TNF" got -- this past season's demo performance was younger than any linear platform that shows NFL games. In fact, it skewed younger than any NFL games package has since 2013.

“Amazon has earned a strong reputation for making big bets, and given the unprecedented scale of this challenge and the hallowed place that NFL coverage holds among millions of fans, the launch of Thursday Night Football ranks high among our most ambitious enterprises,” said Jay Marine, Amazon's VP of Prime Video and global head of sports. “We are only at the beginning of a long-term mission, but are ecstatic with the results and achievements of this first season, bringing millions of viewers to Prime Video every week.” ■

Amazon Prime Video averaged 9.6 million viewers for its first season as exclusive rights holder to the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package. 

Let's just say that's a little short of a first down.

That viewer average represented a whopping 41% audience shortfall from the 16.2 million viewers the package averaged in 2021, when it was shared by Fox, the NFL Network, Amazon and local broadcast channels. 

Amazon's 9.6 million viewer performance was also the lowest since the NFL started selling the "Thursday Night Football" package to TV companies in 2014. According to the Sports Business Journal, the previous low was the 14 million viewers averaged in 2020 when Fox and the NFL Network shared the franchise during the quarantine-impacted season. 

For its part, Amazon claims that the 2021 viewership average of 16.2 million is distorted by the inclusion of a Christmas Saturday game on FOX that drew 28 million viewers and bogusly inflated the overall season performance. 

Without that outsized Saturday performance, the 2021 average drops to 13.3 million viewers, Amazon said, rendering the "TNF" ratings gap between 2021 and 2022 at just 28%. 

Amazon is paying around $1 billion a season for multi-year exclusive rights to the "TNF" package. Its inaugural season as exclusive rights holder wrapped up last Thursday (Dec. 29), with the Dallas Cowboys beating the Tennessee Titans. 

The better news for Amazon and the NFL: The median age for the Prime Video "TNF" viewer was 47 this season, which was seven years younger than the median age averaged by the rest of the NFL's TV rights packages. 

Viewership by adults 18-34 averaged 2.11 million, up by 11% over 2021 "TNF" broadcasts. Throughout the season, 22% of "TNF" viewers on Amazon were between the ages of 18-34 vs. just 14% for linear networks carrying NFL games. 

"TNF" matchups generally weren't interesting this season, with six games pitting two teams that both ended up missing the playoffs. Other contests, such as a week 9 game featuring the 13-3 Philadelphia Eagles beating the 2-13-1 Houston Texans, simply weren't competitive. 

Amazon's highest rated game was a week 2 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers, with the game featuring two eventual playoff teams averaging 13 million viewers. 

In all, six games averaged more than 10 million viewers. 

The lowest rated Amazon Prime Video game came on Nov. 10, with a matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons, two teams that missed the playoffs. 

Sports fans may not punt away their pay TV subscriptions in big numbers should live NFL, MLB or NBA games move exclusively to streaming services, according to a new study from research company Aluma.

Only 8% of pay TV subscribers said they would definitely cancel their subscription if their favorite sport moved its games exclusively to a streaming service like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video, Aluma said. 

In terms of specific sports, 11% of National Football League fans would cancel their pay TV subscriptions if games moved exclusively to streaming, while 8% of National Basketball Association or Major League Baseball fans would abandon pay TV if those leagues went digital-only, according to Aluma.

Aluma founder and director of research Michael Greeson said that while live sports continues to be a major draw for pay TV, it’s not as big a factor in subscribers staying put as originally thought. One reason is that 80% of live TV sports viewers also subscribe to at least one of the top-five SVOD services.

Also: Big 12 Conference Seals Stabilizing $2.28 Billion TV Rights Extension with ESPN and Fox

Also, one-third of subscribers who aren’t fully satisfied with their pay TV service continue to subscribe because they are used to having it, while only 18% do so as their main source for live sports programming, according to Aluma. 

“Perhaps live sports are less critical to pay TV's stickiness than we’ve long believed," Greeson said in a statement. “The findings are contrary to the dominant narrative that, without TV sports, pay TV couldn’t survive.”

While streaming services have made inroads in gaining exclusive rights to live pro and college sports events, including Prime Video’s multi-year exclusive deal for NFL Thursday Night Football, most major live sports events remain on linear television. Pay TV platforms should continue to secure live sports content, Greeson said, but he  warned that sports rights could eventually become too expensive for linear TV distributors.

“There is a point at which the exorbitant fees MVPDs pay to license sports are no longer worth the cost,” he said.■

Amazon Prime Video said LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Paul Rivera of Uninterrupted's The Shop will host an alternative feed for its NFL Thursday Night Football games.

TNF in The Shop, starting November 17 when the Tennessee Titans play the Green Bay Packers, looks like Amazon’s answer to ESPN’s popular Manningcast, where Peyton and Eli Manning host an alternative feed for Monday Night Football on ESPN2.

Amazon already offers several alternative feeds on Thursday night, including TNF with Dude Perfect, TNF with Storm & Kremer, TNF en Español and Prime Vision with Next Gen Stats.

Also Read: Amazon’s Marie Donoghue on How the Streamer Plans to Score Subs with Live Sports

“We are incredibly excited to welcome The Shop to the Thursday Night Football family and work alongside Uninterrupted to deliver a new viewing experience for fans of both the NFL and The Shop,” said Amina Hussein, head of talent, Prime Video Sports. "Each week, Thursday Night Football brings together friends and family to watch and engage with the teams and players they love. With ‘TNF in The Shop,’ we are honored to deepen that fan experience through organic, authentic conversation, and look forward to its premiere on November 17.”

TNF in The Shop will aim to capture the flavor of The Shop, which moved from HBO to Interrupted's YouTube channel, and captures conversations among athletes, musical performers, politicians and other cultural figures.

James, Carter and Rivera plan to have guests on the show, creating a watch-party atmosphere. James’s Los Angeles Lakers don’t have a Thursday NBA game until late January, freeing up the pro-hoops star to watch football.  ■

Amazon, which already streams Thursday night National Football League games, will add a game on Black Friday next season.

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days during the holiday season, creating a big commerce opportunity for Amazon Prime Video. 

The game is set to appear at 3 p.m. ET on November 24, 2023, the day after Thanksgiving. 

“Thanksgiving is synonymous with football, and we’re excited to give our fans another day of NFL action during this holiday weekend,” said Hans Schroeder, chief operating officer for NFL Media. “Amazon is uniquely positioned to partner with us for this game as ‘Black Friday’ is one of the most important days of the year for their business.”

So far this season, Thursday Night Football on Prime Video is averaging 10.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen, down from last year when it was on Fox. But viewing is up among young viewers, posting a 38% gain among 18-to-34-year-olds.

“Thursday Night Football has already proven tremendously successful on Prime Video, delivering millions of viewers every week, and we’re excited to expand our relationship with the NFL with the inaugural ‘Black Friday’ game, starting next year,” Prime Video global head of sports Jay Marine said. “ ’Black Friday’ is the unofficial start of the holiday season, and we’re thrilled to kick it off with a gift for football fans across the country with this new game.” ■

In week 4, Amazon Prime Video more than held its own as the exclusive stakeholder of Thursday Night Football, with its live stream of the Cincinnati Bengals’ win over the Miami Dolphins averaging 11.7 million viewers across all platforms, according to Nielsen.

The performance represented a whopping 46% improvement over the 2021 week 4 TNF showing, which was confined to cable’s NFL Network. TNF was up 6% week over week, according to Nielsen. 

It should be noted that week 4 featured one of the lower performances for TNF last year. The NFL programming franchise was shared by Fox, Prime Video and NFL Network last season. It produced outsized ratings on Fox, and it averaged 16.4 million viewers for the season. 

Things aren’t going quite that well for Amazon. But adding the tech company’s own metrics to Nielsen’s delivered a 13.4 rating across all platforms. 

That latter figure includes 531,000 viewers on local over-the-air affiliates in the home markets — a performance that was no doubt hindered by power disruptions in Florida caused by Hurricane Ian. ▪️

Amazon Prime Video’s first regular-season edition of NFL Thursday Night Football on September 15 drew 13 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The viewership figure for the Los Angeles Chargers-Kansas City Chiefs matchup was up 47% from a year ago, when the Week 2 Thursday night game appeared nationally only on NFL Network.

Adding Amazon’s own first-party measurement to Nielsen’s total, Amazon said the football game averaged 15.3 million viewers.

Last year, when Thursday Night Football was televised by Fox, Prime Video and NFL Network, it averaged 16.4 million.

This is the first year of an 11-year deal under which Amazon Prime will stream Thursday Night Football as the exclusive national distributor.

Amazon reportedly told advertisers that it expected an average audience of 12.6 million viewers for its games. 

Amazon hired Nielsen to measure viewership of TNF for sponsors.

Earlier, Amazon had said that the Chiefs-Chargers game had generated record signups for Amazon Prime.

Amazon also noted that its presentation of TNF drew more younger viewers than games attracted last year. The average viewer on Amazon Prime was 46, six years younger than the linear NFL audience through Week 2 this season and seven years younger than last year’s TNF audience.

Ratings among adults 18 to 34 was 18% higher than the average of NFL telecasts this season and TNF had more viewers in that demographic than any other NFL game this season. 

Local ratings on broadcast TV for the game included 602,000 viewers in L.A. and 555,000 viewers in Kansas City. During Amazon’s pre-season TNF game, a huge share of viewers watched on broadcast in the teams’ home markets. ■

Amazon's first exclusive regular-season presentation of NFL Thursday Night Football generated record signups over a three-hour window, comparable to shopping events such as Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the online retail giant said. 

“Our first exclusive TNF broadcast delivered the most watched night of primetime in the U.S. in the history of Prime Video,” Jay Marine, VP of Prime Video and global head of sports for Amazon, said in an internal memo leaked to the media. “This is a massive achievement."

The game featured a memorable NFC West matchup, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes rallying the Kansas City Chiefs over the San Diego Chargers and counterpart Justin Hebert 27-24. 

How many viewers saw it on television? Unclear. 

Also read: As NFL Kicks Off, Who’s Watching Amazon’s Thursday Night Football? (Bloom)

Amazon, which assumed total control of the TNF franchise with an 11-year deal that pays the NFL around $1 billion per season, has told advertisers to expect around 12 million viewers to tune in each week for TNF, with the base of U.S. Prime Video subscribers standing at around 80 million. 

Very dialed-in Sports Business Journal reporter Jon Ourand has said that a more realistic performance for a competitive game is around 5 million - 7 million viewers. He called the 33.6/57 share rating in Kansas City "probably a little bit below what TV networks typically get from that market."

TNF is coming off its best audience season since 2015, averaging 16.4 million viewers in the 2021 season running across FOX broadcaset, NFL Network, Amazon Prime Video, FOX Deportes, NFL digital and Fox Sports digital, along with Twitch and Yahoo Sports mobile platforms. 

Amazon paid big bucks for the exclusive national broadcast rights to stream NFL Thursday Night Football starting this season, but 48% of the viewership for Prime Video’s first preseason game came via local broadcast, the TVB pointed out.

When the San Francisco 49ers played the Houston Texans on August 25, 1.04 million total viewers tuned in, according to Nielsen, hired by Amazon to count eyeballs for its advertisers.

Also: Amazon Kicks Off Effort To Tackle 'Thursday Night Football' Sponsors

But the TVB, which represents local stations, took a closer look at Nielsen’s NPower system and found that KTVU San Francisco drew 264,355 of those total viewers while KRIV Houston drew 229,780 impressions. Combined, the stations represented 494,135 impressions.

The NFL ensures that fans in the teams’ local market can watch games on cable and streaming via free over-the-air TV in order to placate lawmakers and preserve the league’s antitrust exemption.

“The power of local broadcast TV and major sports franchises couldn't be more clear. Football enthusiasts love their home teams and overwhelmingly choose to watch their games on hometown TV stations,” TVB CEO Steve Lanzano said. “Just two local broadcast TV stations in San Francisco and Houston easily attracted 48% of Amazon's national delivery, and that’s just preseason!”

Amazon did not return a request for comment before this story was published.

Prime Video’s first regular-season Thursday Night Football game is September 15 when the Los Angeles Chargers visit the Kansas City Chiefs. ■

Amazon Prime Video will kick off its exclusive NFL Thursday Night Football package on September 15 when the Los Angeles Chargers meet the Kansas City Chiefs. The regular-season schedule highlights the streaming service's growing lineup of live sports programming.

But TNF, which premiered on August 25 with an exclusive Houston Texans-San Francisco 49ers preseason game, is just part of a mix of live sports events the streaming service hopes to use to lure in fans. The Prime Video lineup also includes regular-season WNBA basketball games, mixed martial arts events from One Championship and exclusive in-market New York Yankees baseball games and Seattle Storm WNBA games.  

Amazon VP of global sports video Marie Donoghue recently spoke to Multichannel News about Prime Video’s live sports aspirations and what the genre adds to the overall value of the streaming service. Here’s an edited transcript of that discussion. 

MCN: How do you see live sports programming fitting into the overall value proposition for Prime Video? 

Marie Donoghue: As you know, Prime is a membership benefit, and so live marquee sports is what we call a headline benefit. We have the NFL — probably the most popular sport in the U.S. — with our Thursday Night Football deal, which we’re really, really excited to launch this season with our first game on September 15. It’s a massive investment for us and we've based it on our track record working with the NFL over the last several years, as well as the experience we've had in Europe. We've been showing top-tier sports for several years with the Premier League in the U.K. and the Champions League in Italy and Germany, Ligue 1 in France and the U.S. Open tennis tournament in the U.K. We know for sure that top marquee sports programming really resonates with our customers, so it's become an essential part of our service in several countries. 

MCN: What drew Prime Video to the WNBA and how has it performed for the streaming service?

MD: We’re huge fans of the WNBA, and overall we saw increased viewership this season for the WNBA. Last year they were developing the Commissioner’s Cup (the WNBA's mid-season tournament), so we thought it would be an awesome opportunity to serve our fans. I think fans really liked it because you get to see the top teams compete.

MCN: Along with the NFL and WNBA, Prime Video has also streamed live local games for such teams as the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and MLS’s Seattle Sounders FC. Is that a strategy that you will look to continue with other teams in other sports? 

MD: Yes, we look at everything. We always consider whether there is a way for us to improve the experience, the accessibility and the value for fans. We found with the Sounders, the Yankees and the Storm that that was all true. We were able to reach an audience that isn't reached by the traditional pay TV bundle, and we've also been able to provide great value to our subscribers — you get the games with your Prime membership. 

MCN: Prime Video has also stepped into the combat-sports ring with One Championship. Does that franchise offer a different sports appeal to Prime Video subscribers than the WNBA or NFL fotball? 

MD: One Championship is the world’s largest martial arts organization, and we’re bringing them live in primetime to the U.S. and Canada exclusively. They are primarily based out of Singapore, but next year we’ll have some events from the US. Those fans are incredibly passionate and engaged and the One Championship organization is fairly unique, and I’m particularly pleased that they treat female athletes equally. We’re really excited about working with them. ■

DirecTV and Amazon, as expected, announced a multi-year agreement to provide Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football telecasts to fans in 300,00 sports bars, restaurants, hotel lounges, casinos, sportsbooks and other venues nationally.

Amazon’s Prime Video and Twitch streaming services will be providing the exclusive telecast of Thursday Night NFL football games starting this season under a deal signed last year with the league.

Many bars and restaurants are already set up to receive satellite service, but fewer are equipped for streaming and Amazon doesn’t have relationships with retail venues.

Financial terms were not announced.

DirecTV is also entering its final season as the provider of the NFL’s Season Ticket out-of-market game package, which is also beamed into bars, restaurants and other venues by DirecTV. Google, Apple TV, and Disney are bidding to stream Sunday Ticket and could also make a deal with DirecTV to continue to serve retail outlets.

“The sports media landscape continues to evolve rapidly, and the focus on delivering a great experience to our entire range of customers must remain at the center of that evolution,” said Rob Thun, DirecTV chief content officer. “This agreement between Amazon and DirecTV for Business comes at an important time when more streaming companies are obtaining exclusive rights to marquee sports programming and fans want to cheer on their teams at home and while out at bars, restaurants and other businesses with friends, family and coworkers.”

Any current DirecTV for Business customer subscribing to Business Entertainment, Business Xtra, Commercial Entertainment, Commercial Xtra, Commercial Choice Plus and the Spanish-language Commercial Mas Ultra will automatically receive this new Prime Video TNF feed for no additional cost, DirecTV said. 

The first TNF game available to commercial accounts through DirecTV for Business is the final NFL preseason matchup on August 25 between the San Francisco 49ers and the Houston Texans. The agreement covers all 15 Thursday Night Football regular-season contests, starting September 15 when the Los Angeles Chargers travel to play the Kansas City Chiefs.  ■

Amazon has picked Nielsen to measure how many people watch Thursday Night Football this season, which will be streamed nationally exclusively for the first time.

Nielsen will measure viewership of the game, plus the pregame and post game shows on Prime Video and Twitch. It will also count viewers watching in the teams’ home markets via local stations.

Nielsen said this is the first time a live program on a streaming service will be measured as part of its national TV ratings.

Also: Amazon Kicks Off Effort To Tackle ‘Thursday Night Football’ Sponsors

Nielsen, which dominated measurement of traditional viewing has been facing increased competition as more consumers turned to streaming. Nielsen said Amazon’s decision reinforces, “Nielsen’s ability to measure customers’ changing viewing behaviors and how content owners are distributing programming.”

“Excitement is building for this new era of Thursday Night Football. We are looking forward to delivering a new viewing experience and offering brands new ways to connect with current and future fans,” said  Srishti Gupta, director of media measurement, Amazon Ads. 

“Our collaboration with Nielsen will allow us to provide advertisers with familiar campaign measurement to make apples-to-apples comparisons across their multi-channel media investments,” Gupta said. “Additionally, advertisers will have access to metrics from Amazon that will provide actionable insights to understand brand awareness, engagement, and sales. This powerful combination of first and third-party measurement is something only Amazon can provide.” 

Thursday Night Football on Amazon will be measured and processed like all other NFL games, using Nielsen’s panel, allowing for the same metrics to be reported across all other national networks, continued trending, and comparability. 

Also: Amazon Buys Super Bowl Spot To Promote ‘Thursday Night Football’

“Nielsen is the long-time leader in the measurement space, providing gold-standard currency to the media industry and we’re thrilled that Amazon recognizes that and is working with us to bring a streaming service into our National TV measurement for the first time ever,” said Deirdre Thomas, managing director, U.S. audience measurement product sales at Nielsen. “We are committed to delivering comparable, comprehensive measurement of all audiences, across all platforms, and this agreement to measure TNF viewership is a testament to that commitment.”

Nielsen will begin measuring TNF on Amazon starting with a San Francisco-Houston preseason game on August 25. Amazon’s 15-game TNF regular season slate kicks off September 15 when the Los Angeles Chargers play the Kansas City Chiefs. 

According to Nielsen’s ratings, NFL games and shoulder programming such as pregame and postgame accounted for the top 27 live telecasts in 2021, and 47 of the top 50.  ■

Amazon announced the latest splashy on-air hire for its upcoming takeover of the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" franchise -- Turner Sports and Bleacher Report personality Taylor Rooks. 

According to Amazon, starting September 15, when the tech giant begins its "TNF" coverage at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, MO, Rooks will "host feature pieces, sit-down interviews with players and coaches, and more throughout "TNF’s" pregame, halftime and postgame shows."

Amazon is paying $1 billion a season in a multi-year deal to take over the popular "TNF" regular season games package. It was the second highest rated show in broadcast primetime last season when it was on FOX.

Amazon has already hired veteran play-by-play man Al Michaels away from NBC "Sunday Night Football" to be the lead announcer. Kirk Herbstreit, the biggest name in college football announcing, will handle color. Amazon has also hired award-winning reporter Kaylee Hartung, NFL Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez, future Hall of Fame cornerback Richard Sherman, and colorful journeyman NFL quarterback  Ryan Fitzpatrick as on-air talents for its coverage.

As for Rooks, she'll continue to work for Turner and Bleacher Report, as well. In fact, Warner Bros. Discovery announced Thursday that it had reached a contract extension with Rooks. 

“Taylor Rooks is an incredibly talented journalist, who has already established herself as one of the best interviewers in sports,” said Marie Donoghue, VP of global sports video for Amazon. “We look forward to bringing her engaging and illuminating conversations to our Thursday Night Football coverage.”

Thursday Night Football Schedule:

Pregame Coverage Begins at 7 p.m. EDT. Kickoff Time 8:15 p.m. EDT.

Week 2 - Sept. 15: Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs (GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO)

Week 3 - Sept. 22: Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns (FirstEnergy Stadium, Cleveland, OH)

Week 4 - Sept. 29: Miami Dolphins at Cincinnati Bengals (Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, OH)

Week 5 - Oct. 6: Indianapolis Colts at Denver Broncos (Empower Field at Mile High, Denver, CO)

Week 6 - Oct. 13: Washington Commanders at Chicago Bears (Soldier Field, Chicago, IL)

Week 7 - Oct. 20: New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals (State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ)

Week 8 - Oct. 27: Baltimore Ravens at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL)

Week 9 - Nov. 3: Philadelphia Eagles at Houston Texans (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX)

Week 10 - Nov. 10: Atlanta Falcons at Carolina Panthers (Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC)

Week 11 - Nov. 17: Tennessee Titans at Green Bay Packers (Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI)

Week 13 - Dec. 1: Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots (Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA)

Week 14 - Dec. 8: Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Rams (SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA)

Week 15 - Dec. 15: San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks (Lumen Field, Seattle, WA)

Week 16 - Dec. 22: Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ)

Week 17 - Dec. 29: Dallas Cowboys at Tennessee Titans (Nissan Stadium, Nashville, TN)

DirecTV is reportedly close to securing the rights from Amazon to show NFL Thursday Night Football in restaurants and bars.

The report comes from the Sports Business Journal's reliably dialed-in John Ourand, but does not include any financial details. 

Amazon Prime Video last year secured exclusive broadcast rights to 15 NFL regular-season Thursday night games a season, paying the league around $1 billion a year for them. This was part of the NFL's $105 billion overall rights renewal package that determined the league's broadcast partners for the next decade.

Streaming live 4K video over the internet has come a long way in just a few years, but latency is still a problem. And the challenge is exacerbated when you try to sync video on multiple monitors. This is the main reason why national restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings expressed relief to Ourand over what appears to be a pending deal to keep TNF on linear DirecTV satellite. 

Broadcast network Fox controlled TNF rights last year. 

DirecTV will give up its exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket after this coming football season, ending a carriage relationship with for the $300-a-month out-of-market games package that spanned back to the mid-1990s. 

However, DirecTV has revealed interest in keeping restaurant and bar rights to Sunday Ticket after Google, Amazon, Apple and Disney settle their bidding competition to take over the franchise. 

As a consumer pay TV option, DirecTV continues to recede, losing an estimated 300,000 customers across DirecTV-branded satellite and vMVPD services, as well as legacy U-verse TV, in the first quarter, according to Leichtman Research Group. 

But the satellite-TV service continues to be vital in business-to-business markets, not only restaurants and bars, but also hospitality. 

Since DirecTV was spun off from AT&T last year as a joint venture with private equity, it's harder to tell than ever how much the satellite TV operator is making from these niche markets. But it does appear that those segments are resistant to cord-cutting and will belong to DirecTV for some time to come. ▪️

Amazon Prime Video is hoping its live coverage of the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup Championship game tonight (July 26) continues to build on the streaming service’s appeal to sports fans through quality, live sports content, according to Amazon VP of global sports video Marie Donoghue.

The Commissioner’s Cup, an in-season tournament that matches the two WNBA teams with the best record based on percentage of games designated for Cup play in each conference, debuted last year with the Seattle Storm defeating the Connecticut Sun. This season’s matchup pits defending WNBA champion Chicago Sky against the Las Vegas Aces. The winning team receives a $500,000 prize, according to the league. 

Donoghue said last year’s inaugural event drew strong viewership for the streaming service, although she would not reveal specific numbers. She said the exclusive rights to the game came out of Prime Video’s multi-year deal with the league to air 16 WNBA games per season reached in 2021.

“We thought it was an awesome opportunity for us to serve our fans with the Commissioner's Cup,” said Donoghue told Multichannel News. “We were pleased with last year’s viewership — we generated a lot of positive feedback from viewers. We’re especially excited to have it come back for the second year.” 

Donoghue said Prime is working with the YES Network — the two have already teamed to exclusively stream 21 New York Yankees games this season — to stream the Commissioner's Cup championship game. YES Network on-air talent Sarah Kustok and Michael Grady will serve as analyst and play-by-play announcer for the event.

Also serving on the Commissioner's Cup broadcast team is former WNBA All-star Dawn Staley, who said the game provides a major boost to the WNBA. “I think the Commissioner’s Cup … makes regular-season games meaningful,” said Staley, the head women’s basketball coach for South Carolina, the NCAA champions. “If you're really good, it affords you an opportunity to win two championships.” 

Donoghue said the game along with Prime Video’s remaining WNBA telecasts helps the streaming service take sports fans into the late summer and its exclusive NFL Thursday Night Football package.

“We're really, really excited to launch the Thursday Night Football package with our preseason games in August, and then our first regular season on September 15,” she said. “It's a massive investment for us, and we’ve based it on our track record working with the NFL over the last several years.” ▪️

Amazon Prime Video named Fox Sports’s Charissa Thompson as host for its pregame, halftime and postgame coverage surrounding its Thursday Night Football telecasts.

Thompson will retain her Fox NFL Kickoff hosting duties on Sundays.

“We are excited to welcome Charissa to the TNF team,” said Jared Stacy, Prime Video’s director of Global Live Sports Production. “Her infectious enthusiasm, quick wit, and strong NFL credentials make her perfectly suited for this role. We look forward to seeing her elevate conversations and connecting with viewers every Thursday night.” 

On Thursdays Thompson will be working with Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman and Ryan Fitzpatrick live and on-site. 

Amazon Prime Video hired Al Michaels to do play-by-play and Kirk Herbstreit as analyst during games.

Thursday Night Football will kick off September 15 with the Los Angeles Chargers playing the Kansas City Chiefs.  ■

Granted, it will be Disney and ESPN that will air longtime Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, just traded to the Denver Broncos, visiting his former team in the first game of the NFL regular season on Thursday, Sept. 8.  

But as Amazon begins its reign as the exclusive licensor of the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package, it has some pretty compelling Thursday-night matchups lined up in Week 2 of the NFL regular season and beyond, as well, starting with last season's AFC runner-up Kansas City Chiefs hosting the also-contending Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 15. 

Former NBC play-by-play man Al Michaels will join ESPN college football color stalwart Kirk Herbstreit in the Amazon Prime Video booth this season, with Amazon paying around $1 billion a year to take over the regular season games franchise. 

FULL 2022 THURSDAY NIGHT SCHEDULE DETAILED BELOW:

Pregame Coverage Begins at 7 p.m. ET. Kickoff Time 8:15 p.m. ET

Final Preseason Game - Thursday, Aug. 25: San Francisco 49ers at Houston Texans (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX)

Week 2 - Thursday, Sept. 15: Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs (GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO)

Week 3 - Thursday, Sept. 22: Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns (FirstEnergy Stadium, Cleveland, OH)

Week 4 - Thursday, Sept. 29: Miami Dolphins at Cincinnati Bengals (Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, OH)

Week 5 - Thursday, Oct. 6: Indianapolis Colts at Denver Broncos (Empower Field at Mile High, Denver, CO)

Week 6 - Thursday Oct. 13: Washington Commanders at Chicago Bears (Soldier Field, Chicago, IL)

Week 7 - Thursday, Oct. 20: New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals (State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ)

Week 8 - Thursday, Oct. 27: Baltimore Ravens at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL)

Week 9 - Thursday, Nov. 3: Philadelphia Eagles at Houston Texans (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX)

Week 10 - Thursday, Nov. 10: Atlanta Falcons at Carolina Panthers (Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC)

Week 11 - Thursday, Nov. 17: Tennessee Titans at Green Bay Packers (Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI)

Week 13 - Thursday, Dec. 1: Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots (Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA)

Week 14 - Thursday, Dec. 8: Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Rams (SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA)

Week 15 - Thursday, Dec. 15: San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks (Lumen Field, Seattle, WA)

Week 16 - Thursday, Dec. 22: Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ)

Week 17 - Thursday, Dec. 29: Dallas Cowboys at Tennessee Titans (Nissan Stadium, Nashville, TN)

Amid all the sturm und drang after The Great Netflix Correction and CNN Plus’ hasty demise, it’s easy to forget that at least one streaming-video operator is ready for the fast-evolving video future filled with ads. 

That operator is Amazon, which used its session at this week’s NewFronts advertising confab to showcase all the ways it can help brands separate customers from their cash. 

That matters because last month’s ugly comeuppance made it clear that even broad-based media companies better have an ad-based component if they want to reach the broadest, most lucrative potential audience. 

The event at New York’s Lincoln Center provided plenty for marketers to drool over, even if few of Amazon’s announcements count as “new.” But the imposing lineup certainly made Amazon’s point very clear: it’s ready for what’s next. 

The list of attractions is notable: the new NFL deal kicking off this fall; FAST service Freevee with new originals (including some Disney action movies) and more channels; live-streaming beast Twitch rolling out new ways for brands to partner with its creators; virtual product placement tech, to digitally insert branded material into a scene; and the Amazon Marketing Cloud, the web giant's “end-to-end planning, measurement and optimization solution.”

That’s a lot, especially for a company known more for e-commerce, grocery stores, pharmacies and a whole bunch of other stuff. And though I despise the term, the synergies here can be huge. 

For instance, with Amazon exclusively taking over NFL Thursday night games this season,  just imagine Black Friday kicking off on Amazon alongside Turkey Day’s evening game. How much will brands pay for the chance to be in the middle of both the biggest show on TV and the biggest selling day in retail? 

As for the virtual product placement tech, Henrik Bastin, executive producer of Freevee original Bosch: Legacy, called the digital technology a “game-changer” for creators and brands. 

For one thing, it’ll simplify the laborious process of getting product placement deals done. Instead of spending time lining those projects up before the cameras roll, the show can be produced, and the product placement figured out later. 

And any subsequent deal doesn’t have to be forever. The branded material can be changed after a couple of years, a gift that keeps giving. 

Don’t forget that just-closed  $8.45 billion deal for MGM’s 4,000 movies and 17,000 hours of TV episodes. Those should begin filtering onto Freevee, Prime and even Twitch soon enough, giving viewers more reasons to watch, and more marketers reason to buy time. 

More generally, don’t forget that Amazon already generated $31.2 billion in ad revenue last year, behind only Facebook and Alphabet as the biggest online advertising site. More streaming ad inventory will only grow that huge number for what is, basically, a side hustle.

Oh, sure, other media companies trotted out noteworthy initiatives these past few weeks, too. 

Comcast announced an intriguing joint venture built around afterthought streaming service Xumo, giveaway hardware Flex, its line of branded Smart TVs, and $900 million from cable colleague Charter Spectrum. 

The JV could turn into something, maybe, eventually. Some observers are more enthusiastic than I about its prospects. I consider it a long-term play in a declining business, one last shot to capture cord-cutters on their way out the door. But it leverages a lot of existing assets in a smart way though, and for that the companies deserve some credit. 

The JV does give Xumo and Peacock more reach, into Charter territory for one, and possibly far beyond as some customers move to areas not served by either and take the equipment and relationships with them. 

The companies will have to convert fully to Internet Protocol delivery of their programming, which will save on bandwidth and may enable other ventures.  

And, possible big bonus long term, the JV’s new service may kneecap quasi-competitors such as Roku, TCL, Google TV and Vizio, providing low-end consumers with an attractive hardware alternative from a TV provider they already know. 

All told, it represents yet another innovative partnership for the creatively accretive Brian Roberts, who once again is getting bigger and broader without causing antitrust hawks to circle overhead. 

Another competitor, Paramount Global, said it’s heading to some big international markets, beefing up ad-supported offerings with a new Lionsgate deal, and unveiling its version of virtual product placement, called In-Scene Ads. 

But those offerings feel just a tad undernourished next to everything Amazon can put together when it focuses on something other than unionization campaigns, or which Whole Foods outlets to close. 

The company also still has Amazon Prime Video and that lucrative Prime Video Channels offering, where it scrapes billions of dollars in fees from the dozens of subscription services available there. 

But streaming’s evolving reality means any competitor better have a sturdy ad-based option to reach the broadest possible audience, and generate the most revenue. Even Netflix is bowing to reality after years of dissing ad-supported offerings. 

The problem for Netflix, and for other competitors, is that Amazon remains in, er, prime position to scoop up billions more in ad revenue while they’re all still figuring out this new part of their businesses. This week’s presentation was just a detailed reminder of the many ways Amazon will do that.

Amazon Prime Video will be at the NFL Draft in Las Vegas this week, drumming up interest in the Thursday Night Football package it will be exclusively streaming in the fall.

The NFL is holding its draft in Las Vegas starting Thursday, and fans there will be learning which teams will play in Prime’s first Thursday night game on September 15. 

Prime Video has a studio set up in Las Vegas where fans can make believe they're Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit, who will be calling the Thursday Night games. Fan video from the Thursday Night Football broadcast desk will be sent directly to fans so they can post them on social.

Also: Amazon Buys Super Bowl Spot To Promote ‘Thursday Night Football’

Since this is Amazon delivering information, there’s a box involved, in this case a big box. The box will help fans countdown to when the teams get revealed.

“NFL Draft weekend is a moment in time that all football fans look forward to every year,” said Ukonwa Ojo, CMO, Prime Video & Studios. “It signals the start of the new season, which made it an ideal location for the next step in our campaign. To help build that excitement, we wanted to recreate the type of environment Al, Kirk, and our Thursday Night Football team will broadcast from every week. By bringing guests into that world, we want to clearly showcase that on Prime Video, football is open to everyone.” 

Throughout the weekend NFL legends will be on-site for autographs and photo-ops. There will also be chances to win exclusive items, in addition to Thursday Night Football-branded swag. ■

Veteran sports announcer Al Michaels and ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit will helm Prime Video’s exclusive Thursday Night Football package beginning this September, the streaming service confirmed Wednesday. 

Michaels, who has served as play-by-play announcer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football since 2006, will join Herbstreit — who serves as ESPN’s college football commentator — in leading the streaming service’s exclusive NFL game package, part of an 11-year deal reached with the league reached last year. 

The signing of Michaels — who also called Monday Night Football games for ABC for nearly two decades beginning in 1986 and has served as an announcer for the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup Finals and Winter Olympics during a more than 50-year career in sports television — is a major acquisition for Prime Video, which is hoping to draw eyeballs and subscriptions with its NFL Thursday Night Football package.

Also: Amazon Kicks Off Effort to Tackle ‘Thursday Night Football’ Sponsors

Michaels will team with Herbstreit, who Wednesday also reached reached a multi-year contract extension with ESPN to continue his studio and game analyst role on  the sports network's College GameDay and on ABC Saturday Night Football telecasts. NextTV reported earlier this month that Herbstreit would be moving into Prime Video's Thursday Night Football announcing booth. 

“Kirk’s passion for college football and reverence for its traditions is unmatched,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro in a statement. “His signature analysis and in-depth insight have earned him the respect of both fans and the teams he covers, and we are thrilled to ensure that Kirk will continue to be there for college football’s biggest moments for years to come.”

The move caps a busy off-season for NFL announcers in which a number of high-profile talent switched distribution outlets, including Fox Sports' NFL announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, will now serve as ESPN's Monday Night Football announcers. NBC's Mike Tirico is also expected to take Michaels' place on Sunday Night Football alongside Cris Collinsworth, according to published reports. 

ESPN in February re-signed Peyton Manning and his Omaha Productions to produce the Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli alternative broadcast that airs on ESPN2 opposite ESPN's Monday Night Football telecast.

The move of viewers online to stream television is creating an advertising business opportunity for Amazon, which dominated as consumers ventured online to do their shopping.

As ratings for traditional television have fallen, making it harder for marketers to reach large numbers of consumers, they’re turning to connected-TV services, but the rules there are different and different players are making promises, some that can be kept, some that won’t be.

The digital retail giant’s Amazon Ads unit is ready to step into that void, making the competition the networks have seen coming from tech companies more immediate.

“Streaming TV viewership continues to grow and brands are recognizing this shift,” said Alan Moss, VP, global advertising sales at Amazon Ads.

Also: NFL Deal Gives Amazon Ad Business a Boost: Analyst 

“They’re increasingly adding streaming TV to their marketing mix and we think we’re uniquely positioned to help brands who have historically advertised on traditional TV navigate these viewership changes, build great connections with the most-relevant audiences wherever they’re watching across Amazon, including IMDb TV and Twitch,” Moss said. 

Amazon is attracting viewers by investing in content. More originals are appearing on IMDb TV, Amazon’s free ad-supported streaming service, and Amazon also closed its acquisition of MGM, giving it James Bond, Rocky, Legally Blonde and other attractive intellectual properties.

But when it comes to television, nothing moves the needle like NFL football and Amazon Prime Video will have the exclusive national telecast of Thursday Night Football starting this fall. (Amazon Prime Video is generally ad free, except for its sports programming).

Moss said Amazon Ads has already begun making its Thursday Night Football pitch to advertisers, especially official NFL sponsors, which are some of the biggest spenders on TV advertising. 

“Amazon Ads is offering brands several opportunities to get involved with TNF,” Moss said. 

“This includes using our streaming TV ads to reach NFL fans throughout games on Prime Video and Twitch, and increasing brand awareness through sponsorship opportunities during the pregame, pre-kick, halftime and post-game shows,” he said. “We're really excited to work with brands that will want to get in early and be involved in the evolution of the TNF experience.”

Amazon is also getting ready to make its presentation at the NewFronts in May.

Moss said the pitch has gotten a good response, so far. “We’re feeling good about where we are at this time.”

“It’s the ‘shiny new toy’ that everyone is excited about for sure,” one media buyer who has heard Amazon’s pitch said. The buyer said that so far most of Amazon’s pitch is for traditional NFL broadcast sponsorships, such as halftime and pregame. 

“But there is talk about ‘the possibilities,” the buyer said, adding that Amazon’s TNF packages are very expensive compared to what Fox had been charging, particularly for its post-game programming. “They have to start somewhere, but I expect the market to course-correct it.”

Amazon is reportedly paying about $1 billion a year for exclusive national rights to Thursday Night Football. Fox paid $660 million, but Prime Video and NFL Network had simulcasts of the games.

Moss said that the overall approach for Amazon Ads is that by creating great consumer experiences, it helps advertisers achieve better campaign results.

“With streaming TV we believe we can best deliver value to our customers and advertisers by enabling premium ad-supported content, engaging viewers through reimagined ad experiences, helping advertisers efficiently reach relevant audiences at scale, and providing high fidelity measurement solutions to really tie it all together,” Moss said. 

Those reimagined ad experiences include interactive messages that Amazon began running on the IMDb TV app on Fire TV. 

Through the app, Amazon is able to turn a traditionally passive ad viewing experience into one that “invites customers to easily take an Amazon shopping action using their voice or the Fire TV remote,” Moss said.

Amazon Ads also offers opportunities for advertisers to present content, buy pre-roll bumpers and buy first positions in mid-roll ad pods. It also offers advertisers the opportunity to sponsor shows with limited commercial interruptions, although Moss said IMDb TV’s ad load is already about 50% less than what appears normally on broadcast TV.

Amazon's streaming TV ads and Twitch reach a monthly audience of 135 million unduplicated viewers across the U.S., Moss said.

“We strive to help brands efficiently connect with these viewers using Amazon audience segments, which are informed by shopping and streaming signals similar to how [advertisers] buy display ads with us,” he said.

“Ultimately, the measure of how your brand and message are resonating with customers is your campaign results and reaching the right audiences and growing engagement is important,” Moss added. “But doing this successfully requires really high-fidelity measurement.” 

At a time when the TV business is furiously trying to develop new methodologies for counting viewers and measuring the impact of ads, Amazon is also working to provide more actionable and reliable insights for brands.

Moss said Amazon Ads provides both first- and third-party metrics designed to “help brands understand the full-funnel impact of streaming TV ad campaigns across the consumer journey, both on and off Amazon.”

All of this is attracting traditional Amazon online retail advertisers to start advertising on streaming television across Amazon, Moss said.

“We’re also seeing some traditional TV advertisers who don’t necessarily sell on Amazon finding that our streaming offerings offer a great opportunity for them and one that really works for them,” he said.

Moss notes that brands can’t buy commercials that stream on Amazon the exact same way they traditionally book ads on TV.

“While we do offer some of those options, like engaging demo audiences, what we’ve seen is increases of around 40% on average [on the advertisers' key performance indicators] when brands use our interest-based audiences in their Amazon streaming TV campaigns,” he said. “That's been really compelling.”

Amazon finds interest-based audiences using its own first party data. “Advertisers can also bring their own first-party audiences” using the Amazon Marketing Cloud, the company’s media measurement and analytics clean room. “That’s really the best way to bring in that kind of information and help to really build, measure and optimize campaigns," Moss said.

For measurement, Amazon works with recognized measurement companies including Nielsen. It has also enabled more than 20 third-party measurement vendors to help advertisers understand and compare their performance against industry benchmarks.

Moss said Amazon was looking forward to the NewFronts. It is too early to share specifics of Amazon’s NewFront pitch, Moss said, but he said: “At a high level, we believe we can deliver value by enabling premium ad-supported content and engaging viewers through new ad experiences like interactive video ads, and helping advertisers efficiently reach relevant audiences, at scale, and providing great high-fidelity measurements.” ■

Amazon Studios has named Julie Rapaport as Head of Movies as her former counterpart as co-head, Matt Newman, was named to a new position at Prime Video's growing global Sports unit.

Rapaport continues to report to Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke while Newman "will take on a new role developing original sports docuseries, films, and scripted projects, reporting to Marie Donoghue," Salke said in an internal announcement. 

Rapaport joined Amazon in 2015 as a development executive, coming over from Weinstein Co. "With Julie’s top-notch leadership skills and her ability to nurture a diverse range of filmmakers – from up-and-comers to the well-established – this move will help us continue to build on our great momentum," Salke said. "The critical acclaim keeps rolling in this awards season, including three major noms for Being the Ricardos: Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. Upcoming releases including Master with Regina Hall, My Policeman starring Harry Styles, All the Old Knives starring Chris Pine, and Catherine, Called Birdy with Lena Dunham reinforce our mission to be the Home for Talent. I’m grateful for Julie’s vision and continued contributions to the Studio."

Newman, who was co-head of movies for the last several years, moves to a sports role as Prime Video looks forward to the launch of Thursday Night Football streaming on an exclusive basis this fall. ■

Amazon is set to hire respected ESPN college football commentator Kirk Herbstreit as the lead on-air analyst for Thursday Night Football, the live NFL game package it will assume full control over this coming fall. 

The selection of Herbstreit was reported as a distinct possibility for Amazon last week by the New York Post's Andrew Marchand, after Amazon's first choice, Fox star NFL analyst Troy Aikman, chose to instead jump to Disney-ESPN and its venerable Monday Night Football franchise.

On Monday, NBC's Peter King reported that Amazon will indeed "settle" on Herbstreit, who is probably the most respected on-air voice in college football -- a position that doesn't buy as much locker room cred as you might expect amid the staggering popularity of the NFL game. 

Amazon signed an 11-year deal with the NFL a year ago to become the first exclusive TV-video home of Thursday Night Football. The deal reportedly calls for Amazon to shell out $1 billion a year to the league. 

Herbstreit makes $6 million a year as the lead analyst for ESPN's marquee college football matchup each Saturday during the season. His ESPN duties also require him to appear on Saturday morning panel show College Football GameDay.

The analyst reportedly has a clause in his contract that would allow for him to call NFL games for another company.

Herbstreit is often compared to college football announcing legend Keith Jackson for his depth of knowledge and insights about the college game.

Is his game NFL ready? Questionable.

Notably, Herbstreit, like Aikman, was a star college quarterback, lettering at Ohio State all four of his seasons (1989-1993). Unlike Aikman, who won three Super Bowls as the quarterback of glamor team the Dallas Cowboys, Herbstreit never had an NFL career.

Certainly, the pond Herbstreit is jumping in is much bigger. In November, Fox scored the biggest college football audience in two years, attracting 15 million viewers to watch Michigan finally end a losing streak against hated rival Ohio State.

The average NFL TV audience across all networks in 2021 was 17.1 million viewers. ■ 

Amazon Prime Video is looking forward to next football season with a Super Bowl spot for Thursday Night Football that reminds viewers how much they’ll miss the sports after the big game is over, the trophy has been awarded and the confetti has been cleaned up.

The spot hangs a “closed” sign on this football season, but looks ahead to when the NFL is open again. And each football weekend will start next season on Thursday nights, when Prime Video will launch its first season as the exclusive national carrier of the TNF franchise.

Also: NFL Quick Kick: ‘Thursday Night Football’ to Amazon in 2022

Prime Video is releasing its Super Bowl spot on Thursday via social media at @NFLonPrime and online at amazon.com/tnf.

NBC has said it has sold out its Super Bowl commercials, with some advertisers paying as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot.

Prime Video previously ballyhooed the new logo for Thursday Night Football.

With the games streaming, Prime Video is planning more interactive features, including NextGen stats and polls. Prime Video is also planning to create new pre-game, halftime and postgame shows. ■

Amazon Prime Video kicked off its campaign to get people to sign up for Amazon Prime in order to watch Thursday Night Football by showing off a new logo for the franchise.

Prime Video will be the first streaming service to have a season-long exclusive national broadcast package from the NFL in the fall under an 11 year deal. Fox, which previously aired the TNF package along with Prime Video and NFL Network, punted on the franchise a year early.

Amazon has bought a Super Bowl spot to make sure fans know where to go on Thursday nights.

The logo was inspired by the tip of the arrow in the Amazon smile and the pointed shape of a football, the company said. The typeface is also designed to capture the natural movement and agility of football, and represents Prime Video’s intent to break boundaries and redefine the next generation of football fans.

“We are thrilled to kick off our TNF marketing campaign with this logo unveil,” said Ukonwa Ojo, global chief marketing officer of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “In designing something that both unites our brands and embodies the excitement that only the NFL can deliver, we thought it fitting to capitalize on the buzz surrounding Super Bowl LVI as the first beat of our brand campaign. We look forward to sharing the next chapter with fans during Sunday’s game.”

During games, Prime Video will have interactive features like X-Ray and Next Gen Stats powered by AWS. It will also have new pregame, halftime, and postgame shows. ■

Amazon has bought an ad in Super Bowl LVI to promote that it will be the exclusive national home of the NFL‘s Thursday Night Football franchise next season.

The commercial’s theme will be about the future of football and focus on the personalized experiences fans will be able to get on Amazon Prime Video, according to the platform's chief marketing officer, Ukonwa Ojo.

Those personalized features will include NextGen stats and polls.

She added that Amazon will position Thursday night as the beginning of the football week.

Prime Video is planning to create new pregame, halftime, and postgame shows around Thursday Night Football.

Amazon has been simulcasting Thursday Night Football since 2017, along with Fox (since 2018) and NFL Network. 

Amazon has been in the Super Bowl before, most recently to promote the original movie Coming 2 America with Eddie Murphy.

NBC, which will air the Super Bowl on February 13, has said it has only a few commercial stills available for sale. Some spots have sold for as much as $6.5 million. ■

Sports networks dominated the top two slots on the cable primetime charts during the last full week of 2021.

NFL Network, on the strength of the 7.8 million viewers who tuned into its Dec. 23 San Francisco 49’ers-Tennessee Titans NFL Thursday Night Football game, finished in first place during the week of December 20-December 26 with an average of 3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. 

ESPN, led by its Dec. 20 Minnesota Vikings-Chicago Bears Monday Night Football game, finished second for the week with 2.2 million viewers, followed by Fox News with 1.8 million watchers. 

Hallmark Channel wrapped up its holiday movies schedule in fourth place with 1.2 million viewers, followed by TBS with 1.1 million viewers. Freeform, MSNBC and Paramount Network finished tied for sixth with 1 million viewers, followed by HGTV (982,000 viewers) and TLC (818,000).

Fox News averaged 1.3 million viewers on a 24-hour basis, finishing 2021 on an impressive 45-week winning streak on the total day charts. Hallmark Channel (869,000 viewers), ESPN (838,000), NFL Network (826,000) and Freeform (616,000) rounded out the top five most-watched networks in the chart, reported Nielsen. ■       

Super Bowl champs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Dallas Cowboys to start the NFL season Sept. 9. NBC has the game. Coverage kicks off at 7 p.m. ET under the Sunday Night Football banner, and the game begins at 8:20 ET. 

The game happens at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. 

NFL games continue Sunday, Sept. 12. Sunday Night Football has the Los Angeles Rams versus the Chicago Bears that night. 

The Buccaneers, who were 11-5 last season, faced the 14-2 Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl in February. The Bucs, led by quarterback Tom Brady, won 31-9. 

NBC has the Super Bowl later this season. 

Fox Corp.’s decision to pass on the bidding for rights for Thursday Night Football, coupled with the increasing prospects of its streaming service Tubi, could mean a big growth spurt for the programmer, according to a MoffettNathanson report.  

In a research note, MoffettNathanson media analyst Robert Fishman wrote that by not participating in the recent Thursday Night Football rights auction, where Amazon agreed to pay about $1 billion annually for exclusive rights, Fox can focus on its existing Sunday NFL package and steer some of that money toward obtaining additional sports rights. In addition, Fox’s streaming service Tubi, purchased in 2020 for about $440 million, is poised to substantially increase its revenue output. 

In the report, Fishman, who reiterated his "Buy" rating and $50 price target on the stock, estimated that Tubi could substantially increase its advertising revenue, adding that the AVOD service expects to boost ad sales from about $150 million in fiscal 2020 to about $380 million in fiscal 2021. As the service increases its ad load -- currently at the low-end among its peers -- advertising revenue could balloon to nearly $650 million in fiscal 2022, reaching $1 billion by fiscal 2023 and $1.7 billion by fiscal 2025.

Fox last released Tubi subscriber numbers in September, when it said the service had 33 million monthly active users (MAUs) who consumed 230 million hours of content each month. But Fishman wrote he expects most of Tubi’s ad revenue to be non-cannibalizing to the other Fox networks, adding that the streamer has said that about 80% of its viewers can’t be reached by the top 25 cable networks.  

With its Sunday NFC package in hand, Fox should maintain its strong position to monetize key sports rights,” Fishman wrote. He added that Fox and Disney (which participated in the NFL rights auction through its ESPN and ABC units) will likely maintain some exclusivity to its linear TV channels. Tubi is expected to stream condensed game reruns and various on demand components of league content, but not to the extent of ViacomCBS and NBCUniversal, which have said they would simulcast some games on their respective streaming services. For Fox, that differential could translate to higher retrans and pay TV channel fees, Fishman wrote. 

“We expect distributors will start to be more aggressive with ViacomCBS and NBCU networks (and their non-owned and operated affiliates) as they plan to simulcast their own NFL packages on their OTT services,” Fishman wrote. "While there is the risk that this will lead to more cord-cutting and higher consumer pricing to offset the rising cost of sports rights, we think Fox should be in a position of relative strength to capture an increasing share of retrans and affiliate dollars in upcoming MVPD renewals.”

The jury is still out as to how broadcasters and cable sports programmers expect to pay for the landmark 10-year, $95 billion deal for National Football League rights, but many distributors are bracing for big increases in retransmission consent and affiliate fees to pay at least some of the freight.

The NFL deal spreads rights payments over 10 years for CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC Sunday regular-season and playoff games and ESPN for Monday Night Football. Amazon Prime Video stepped up for Thursday Night Football contests, agreeing to pony up about $1 billion annually for exclusive rights for the games, which shouldn’t have an impact on pay TV. 

The new deal doesn’t take effect until 2023, meaning that operators will have at least a two-year reprieve until the next retrans cycle. While some analysts have said recent retrans negotiations likely took an increase in NFL rights costs into account, they probably didn’t anticipate a doubling of the fees programmers paid — and virtually were forced into paying.

“[A]s more premium content is shifted to DTC platforms, as ViacomCBS and NBCU have shown with their new NFL contracts, the industry runs
the risk of both higher cord-cutting and greater viewer erosion,” Moffett­Nathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson wrote in a note to clients. “In particular, those programmers — again ViacomCBS and NBCU — who appear to abandon their linear programming obligations by rapidly shifting premium content over to their DTC platforms run the risk of getting dropped by MVPDs and/or suffering lower annual price escalators, especially as it relates to growth in retrans.”

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For the most part, cable operators are anticipating a big jump in retrans costs in the next couple of years. Those that have finalized pacts in the past year shouldn’t feel the pain of any NFL-related increases immediately. But since retrans deals are usually three to five years in length (and the NFL rights deals go through 2033), they will feel the pain eventually.

Distributors that will probably have to face a retrans negotiation this year include Dish Network, Cox Communications, AT&T’s DirecTV and U-verse TV units and Altice USA, according to Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Dish deals for 113 Sinclair Broadcast Group stations in 83 markets and for 61 Tegna stations in 51 markets come up for renewal this year, according to Kagan, as do Cox’s agreements for 33 Nexstar Media Group stations in 23 markets and 17 Sinclair stations in 12 markets. AT&T will have to negotiate for 28 Fox stations in 18 markets and Altice USA will start talks regarding 13 Fox stations in eight markets before the end of the year.   However those deals turn out, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) are bracing for increases that they, in turn, would like to pass onto consumers. (See chart.)

Most of the top operators have increased their monthly broadcast surcharges to cover retrans increases, including Comcast, which boosted its surcharge by $4.50 per month per subscriber in January to $19.45, and Charter, which hiked its monthly surcharge by $2.95, to $16.45 per month, earlier this year. The figures are averages, and actual surcharges vary by market.  

“I think this leads to even more unsustainable price increases being demanded of pay TV providers and their customers,” Mediacom Communications senior VP of government and public relations Tom Larsen said. “That’s not a good scenario for the pay TV business long term.”

Some of those fee increases could be demanded by networks and stations that have been less active on the retrans front in the past. The new deal brings The Walt Disney Co.’s ABC back into the NFL fold for the first time since 2006, with rights to the Super Bowl in 2026 and in 2030, as well as three Monday Night Football games — in a doubleheader with ESPN — per year. In a research note, Barclays Group media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar noted that ABC has a significant retrans revenue gap of between $200 million and $600 million annually, compared to its broadcast peers, that should narrow with the NFL’s return.

“With Peacock, Paramount Plus, ESPN Plus and Amazon carrying NFL games, most football games will now be available on some streaming service, which is inevitably likely to result in the pace of cord-cutting accelerating significantly once the new deal fully kicks in and if Disney chooses to make football available on ESPN Plus,” Venkateshwar wrote.

Cable, satellite and telco TV operators will likely foot most of the $95 billion bill over the 10-year period of the deal through higher fees, ACA Connects CEO Matt Polka said in a statement. 

“Broadcast networks and TV station owners like Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna and Apollo Global Management will continue to leverage the broken retransmission-consent rules to demand excessive fees from smaller cable operators, driving up the cost to watch what broadcasters like to call ‘free TV,’ ” Polka said. “In order to make up for their massive NFL obligations, broadcasters will hike their prices even higher — and, ironically, use blackouts of NFL games themselves in order to do so.” 

While operators are reluctant to predict what impact NFL rights will have on retrans negotiations going forward, they are resigned to the reality that fees during the next cycle will be substantially higher. Whether or not they agree to pay them is another thing.

Could Push MVPDs to Breaking Point

In a research note, Nathanson said making programming as valuable as NFL football available both on broadcast and direct-to-consumer streaming services could be the last straw for MVPDs that have complained in the past about having to pay for networks that were available elsewhere for free or at a lower price. 

By making games available simultaneously on both linear and streaming platforms, Nathanson noted, programmers are risking “the possibility that distributors start to punish programmers who move their key content to their owned DTC platforms. As
such, distributors may choose to entirely drop network offerings or decide to rein in their intended annual pricing escalators. Thus, a combination of rising cord-cutting and falling pricing power would crush media earnings.”

According to a distributor that asked not to be named, the streaming aspect of the deal could make dropping a broadcaster a more thinkable option, despite the pushback by consumers.  

“It’s something that all providers, if they aren’t already thinking about it, they need to be thinking about it,” the distributor said.  

Most operators were reluctant to be specific as to what impact the NFL contract will have on retrans fees because the new rights deal won’t kick in for another two years. Still, they don’t appear overly optimistic about the future.

“We remain concerned about the rising costs of sports content and the impact it has on consumers’ access to affordable video services,” Cox executive director, media relations Todd Smith said.

Nathanson observed that the new NFL deal appears to be focused on the league getting a bigger share of the retransmission consent fees that stations are paid by MVPDs. 

“If prior deals were about extracting maximum value for ESPN, these deals were about reclaiming the billions of dollars of retrans payments that the broadcast industry has collected from distributors,” Nathanson wrote. During the last NFL rights negotiation, ESPN affiliate fees were 10 times higher than the retrans revenue of the average broadcast network. Now the ratio is about 5 to 1. 

“With the current rise of cord-cutting and the acceleration in broadcast retrans revenues, we estimate that this gap will narrow even further over the course of the next deal,” Nathanson wrote, putting what MVPDs pay to stations even closer to what they pay ESPN.  

The streaming implications of the new NFL arrangements could be the real wild card. According to reports, CBS, Fox and NBC have the right to simultaneously stream the games with their respective broadcast network, a right CBS held in prior deals with its CBS All Access (now Paramount Plus) service. 

Will Streaming Ties Bind to Pay TV?

Some of the broadcast streaming services are expected to require viewers to have either a higher-tier subscription or a pay TV package that can be authenticated by the streaming service in order to access games. Those dynamics aren’t abundantly clear at the moment, though. According to some reports, subscribers to Paramount Plus’s lowest tier — priced at $4.99 per month — will get access to NFL games.  

Kagan senior research analyst Justin Nielson said if streaming customers are essentially getting the games as part of their regular or even free packages, that could diminish the value of the NFL rights in the eyes of distributors. 

“The exclusivity of the Sunday broadcast games for stations is diminished if it is also available for streaming,” Nielson said. “It will be interesting to see if the major TV-
station owners push back on increases in reverse retrans payments to the networks as traditional multichannel subs decline as more viewers move to streaming.”

LightShed Partners partner and senior analyst Rich Greenfield, who has long predicted the end of the traditional cable bundle, said in a note to clients that the NFL deal could be the final nail in linear TV’s coffin. But it also could spell the ultimate demise of retrans, he added. 

“With more and more NFL content available outside the bundle, the legacy multichannel bundle will evaporate even faster than expected (cord-
cutting) and the ultimate subscriber floor will be lower than anyone thought possible before,” Greenfield wrote.

While Fox doesn’t have a direct-­to-consumer streaming service yet, Greenfield added that the new NFL deal could provide the catalyst to launch a subscription tier of its Tubi streaming service that includes the NFL games. 

Loss of Leverage 

As more and more viewers migrate to streaming, that should materially affect station leverage over distributors, Greenfield continued. 

“In turn, retrans should stop growing and eventually start to decline, especially when you layer in that all the most compelling general entertainment TV programming is now flowing to direct-to-consumer streaming platforms vs. the legacy multichannel bundle,” he wrote.