Amazon gets Thursday night games, NFL nearly doubles TV deal
Much like they did with cable in the 1980s and satellite television in the 1990s, the NFL on Thursday made another significant transition in the way its games are viewed.
The league’s new rights agreements, worth $113 billion over the 11 seasons of the new deals that begin in 2023, include a streaming service receiving an exclusive full season package for the first time when Amazon Prime Video will be the home of 15 “Thursday Night Football” games.
“This is a seminal moment for the distribution of our content,” commissioner Roger Goodell said. “These deals remind me of back in the ’60s, how NFL content and games were a big part of the broadcast TV growth, and then going into the ’80s, with our first commitment to cable television, and then the ’90s with our commitment to satellite television and our Sunday Ticket package. I’m sure we’re going to look back on these deals the same way that we did back in the 1980s.
“This provides our fans with greater access. We want to provide our games on more platforms than ever before.”
The new contracts also mean the NFL will nearly double its media revenue to more than $10 billion a season. The league took in $5.9 billion a year in its current contracts.
Amazon has partnered with the league to stream 11 Thursday night games since 2017, but it will take over the entire package from Fox, which has had it since 2018.
ABC gets back in the Super Bowl rotation with two games over the 11 seasons. ESPN gets some flexibility in its schedule on Monday nights, with the NFL agreeing to potentially move as many as five games from Sunday, and will have three doubleheaders, up from one.
The contract also expands digital rights for the other networks as well. ESPN+ will air one of the London games and NBC’s “Peacock” platform will also have one exclusive game per season for six years beginning in 2023.
Games will continue to air on CBS, Fox, NBC as well as ESPN/ABC. ESPN’s deal was scheduled to end after 2021, while the others expired a year later, but ESPN will have a bridge deal for 2022.