As the NFL continues to look for ways to expand its broadcasting outreach onto streaming platforms, the league reportedly agreed this week to renew their broadcasting contract for Thursday Night Football with Amazon.
According to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, the NFL and Amazon have renewed their deal through 2022 that will stream 11 Thursday Night Football games per season via Prime Vio and Twitch.
Since agreeing to a new collective-bargaining agreement with players, the NFL has made renewing media deals as one of its top priorities.
The NFL recently agreed to a deal that will allow CBS and NBC to broadcast CBS and NBC to broadcast its two additional Wild Card playoff games starting this year. The league is increasingly looking to push for long-term contracts with networks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with growing fears that attendance could take a hit next season and that the 2020 election could drive down viewership.
Amazon originally had a two-year agreement in place with the NFL, which awarded the company with the rights to broadcast Thursday Night Football games for $65 million each year, per the report. The rights fee is expected to be significantly higher than it was in the previous deal.
As part of the new contract, Amazon gained the rights to broadcast one regular-season game in the second half of the 2020 season. The game will fall on a Saturday and no other national outlet will carry the game.
The deal with Amazon is just the latest in the NFL’s continued push into streaming services and more deals like this will likely come in the future.