Amazon renews two-year Prime Video deal for 11 Thursday Night NFL games worldwide
On the heels of its announcement of a $20-a-year hike in its Prime membership which includes access to Prime Video, the National Football League has renewed a two year deal with Amazon for the streaming rights to 11 NFL Thursday Night Football games to more than 100 Prime members worldwide, the NFL announced late Thursday.
The deal is an Amazon exclusive, closing out potential and competitive suitors like Hulu and YouTube. A source tells Reuters Amazon paid about $65 million per year for the broadcast rights.
Games will be broadcast through the Amazon Prime Video app, available on Apple TV. Amazon Prime Video has been available on Apple TV since its much-talked-about debut in December of 2017.
Amazon Prime Video will stream the 11 games that will air on FOX through its local affiliates in the U.S., making them available through various live streaming services like Hulu With Live TV, Fubo TV, YouTube TV, and DirecTV Now that broadcast locals FOX affiliates. The games will also be simulcast on NFL Network (also available on many national streaming services) and distributed in Spanish on FOX Deportes.
Amazon broadcast Thursday night NFL games last season paying around $50 million for the 10 games. In 2016, Twitter paid a measly $10 million for the streaming broadcast rights for the same Thursday NFL matchups.