Amazon Prime Video will show NFL game on Black Friday for FREE
Amazon Prime Video will show the NFL game on Black Friday for FREE, as the streaming giant will host the league’s first game the day after Thanksgiving.
Prime Video will stream an NFL game on Black Friday for free, Amazon announced Tuesday.
The 2023 season will mark the first time the league has scheduled a game for the day after Thanksgiving. Teams for the 3 pm ET game on November 24 will be announced at a later time.
“It’s such an unusual day because a lot of people have it outside of work, so it’s really a unique opportunity to expose all the fans to our broadcast,” Prime Video VP Jay Marine said.
The bonus game gives Prime Video 16 regular-season games for the 2023 season. Those will air from weeks 2-17. Prime Video will also stream a preseason game.
Prime Video has put some of its sports content in front of the paywall before, but for its international customers. He co-owns the rights to the French Open tennis tournament and last year allowed everyone in France access to the quarterfinal match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Last season marked the first year that Prime Video was the exclusive provider of ‘Thursday Night Football’. According to Nielsen figures, the 15-game bundle on Prime Video averaged 9.58 million viewers, while Amazon’s own audience measurement showed an average of 11.3 million.
The NFL has scheduled a game for Black Friday for the first time in league history.
Tony Gonzalez (left), Charissa Thompson, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth and Richard Sherman made the Thursday Night Football team last season.
Jeff Bezos’ Amazon began its deal as the exclusive rights holder for TNF last season
It was the first time Nielsen had tracked and included ratings from a streaming service.
Even with the games only available via streaming, ‘Thursday Night Football’ was the most watched show 13 out of 15 times. One of the times he was beaten was Game 5 of the World Series.
Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, and Kaylee Hartung are expected to return as Prime Video’s broadcast team. There will be a new game producer after Fred Gaudelli retired at the end of last season.
With seven major broadcast windows to place games (three on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night and Monday night), chances are there won’t be any free teams Thanksgiving week.