Amazon could soon become the exclusive home for Thursday Night Football.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon and the NFL are preparing to sign a new deal that would extend Amazon’s rights to exclusive games.
Fox’s Thursday night football deal expires in 2022 and is not being bought out prematurely, according to those familiar with the matter.
In a saturated streaming market with competitors like Netflix, Disney +, HBO Max, and others, Amazon has the resources and existing relationships with the NFL to create an even greater source of revenue and expand its coverage into sports in ways that other streamers just simply cannot.
In a new agreement, Amazon would be responsible for all of its production costs and still be forced to pay a local transmitter to produce the game for its home market, since the NFL wants Thursday night games in each of competing teams’ home markets to be televised locally.
On Sunday, Jan. 10, Nickelodeon (the children’s channel) broadcasted an NFL game. The hosts were CBS Sports NFL analyst Nate Burleson, and Nickelodeon star Gabrielle Nevaeh Green. These broadcasts signal a new era for the future of sports broadcasting.