This year’s AFC Wild Card matchups saw the Miami Dolphins battle the Kansas City Chiefs, but the game was limited to being exclusively streamed on Peacock, in a move that drew plenty of criticism at the time. But now the NFL is doubling down, with Amazon set to become the second major TV streaming service to offer exclusive access to a live football game.
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Amazon joins Peacock in race for exclusive access to NFL games
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is set to stream its first exclusive NFL playoff game next season on Prime Video. Interestingly, Amazon was reportedly offered a chance to exclusively stream a game this past season, but inevitably turned down the offer for unknown reasons.
But now that Peacock has taken the risky leap, Amazon is following suit. Yet, it’s not like Peacock’s attempt fell flat. It still brought in 23 million viewers, in what was the most-streamed live event in United States history.
Yet, not everyone has a Peacock subscription or an Amazon Prime one, for that matter. This will lead to some boycotting the exclusive games, or simply finding another way to access the game, perhaps at a local establishment.
Others will just sign up for exclusive access for a short period and cancel their subscription later. Either way, the cost of watching live NFL games seems to be increasing, even from the comfort of your home.
Still, it’s clear that having exclusively streamed games isn’t what the people want, but the NFL is all about profit, and there’s plenty of money in partnering with major streaming services. In other words, expect the rate of exclusively streamed NFL games to increase over the next few years.
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