Matt Johnson
The National Football League partnered with Amazon to expand its reach through streaming services, leading to a multi-billion deal for the annual rights to Thursday Night Football. Now one of the league’s most important partnerships could result in football on Black Friday.
Nationally-broadcasted games on Thanksgiving have been a staple of the league’s holiday broadcast schedule for decades. In many cases, it would set up Americans to watch football all day on Thanksgiving and then spend the next morning shopping for Black Friday deals in stores.
The NFL now wants to take things a step further. After exploring opportunities to have a primetime game on the Friday after Thanksgiving for several years, it could soon become a reality.
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According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, the NFL is expanding its schedule to include a Black Friday game and the addition is likely to happen during the 2023 season. Unsurprisingly, the partnership would be with Amazon. However, neither side provided comment on the SBJ’s report.
Thanksgiving has already become associated with pro football thanks to the three-game slate that has increased the sport’s popularity in recent. However, team owners want to take things a step further by gaining further control of the expansive holiday weekend.
Amazon’s push to become a more valued NFL partner is likely to continue. The company already hired Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit to be its primary broadcasters for TNF. In addition, one of the largest companies in the world brought on Richard Sherman and Tony Gonzalez to be part of a secondary TNF team.
While there aren’t any specific details on what an NFL Black Friday broadcast would look like on Amazon, it’s fair to assume there would be significant advertising with fans pushed to buy discounted stuff on the site.
Whenever the move officially happens, it’s going to be a win-win for both parties. The league strengthens its ties to Amazon, resulting in an even steeper price tag for the broadcasting rights to games in the future. Meanwhile, Amazon itself becomes a long-term partner in America’s most popular sport with its revenue still skyrocketing every year.
