Amazon Gets ‘Thursday Night Football’ Flexible Scheduling; Why NFL Concessions Aren’t Good News for Streaming Audiences
Amazon Gets ‘Thursday Night Football’ Flexible Scheduling; Why NFL Concessions Aren’t Good News for Streaming Audiences
It took quite a bit of extra effort, but the NFL finally got its flexible scheduling proposal for “Thursday Night Football” games on Prime Video through an ownership vote. Thanks to key concessions made by the NFL, owners passed a resolution to allow flexing of “TNF” games between Weeks 13-17, starting in the 2023 season.
According to the details of the new rule, teams can only be flexed from a Sunday into a Thursday once per season. The biggest point the league decided to moderate its stance on, however, was the length of warning time given to teams that were about to be flexed. The rule requires 28 days’ notice before the flexing of a “TNF” game, whereas the original proposal from March only stipulated a 15-day heads-up from the NFL.
That’s a bit of a bummer for fans, who are the reason the league decided to pursue flexible scheduling for Thursday games in the first place. Four weeks is a long time in the NFL, and a surging team that flexes its way into “TNF” might cool off, or suffer key injuries during a 28-day span. Ticket holders who have to make new plans when a game is flexed to Thursday will be happier, but for fans who watch games at home, it could lead to a less thrilling experience overall.
The league says this stipulation will mean the bar will be very high for flexing “TNF” games. Teams won’t be moved out of their Thursday slot unless they have proven over the course of the season thus far that they don’t belong in primetime. But the sheer length of advance notice required to flex “Thursday Night Football” might defeat the point of flexible scheduling in the first place; to put the best games in front of the largest amount of eyes.
From Amazon’s point of view, the new rule is still a win. The rules are what they are, but Prime Video was the only one of the league’s broadcasting partners that didn’t have any kind of flexible scheduling built into its contract with the NFL. It also helps the league make the case to other streamers that it sees them as important partners moving forward, which will be key when the NFL eventually wants to wind down its relationships with linear broadcasters and make the switch to streaming once and for all.
The league has certainly been taking strides to increase its streaming presence, this season. ESPN+ will get another exclusive international game during the regular season, and Peacock will get an exclusive regular season game and an exclusive wildcard playoff game as well. Prime Video will continue to serve as the sole national broadcaster of “TNF,” and the service will also get the league's first-ever Black Friday game as well.
The NFL as a whole going to a streaming-only format is years, and maybe decades away. But the league is laying the infrastructure for such a move early, and offering flexible scheduling for “TNF” games is the next step in that process. It puts Prime Video on a more equal footing with the NFL’s other broadcasting partners and allows the league to see the effects of flex scheduling on “TNF” for a year as a trial run.
Prime Video
Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.