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. ■
