Amazon Has Eyes for Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions To Create a ‘TNF ManningCast’
If there’s one company that could’ve afforded Peyton Manning, it was Disney. If there was a second, it’d definitely be Amazon. Could the latter be ready to make a push for Peyton to bolster its “Thursday Night Football” coverage?
According to Front Office Sports, Amazon is eyeing Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions once its three-year deal is up with ESPN. Under the current deal, Peyton and brother Eli will helm “Monday Night Football’s” alternate “ManningCast” broadcast for 10 installments per year from 2021-23. ESPN could (and probably would) extend the Mannings into the future and even ask for more installments including playoff games, but Prime Video could very well present a great offer that would pull the Mannings away from ESPN.
The “ManningCast” has been a critical and commercial success, bringing in monster ratings while being the apple of sports media’s eye. The “ManningCast” fever even has other media empires eyeing duplicates trying to bank off the brothers' success.
But getting between ESPN and Omaha will be difficult, especially because ESPN took a chance on Peyton’s Omaha Productions during the early days of ESPN+ in order to populate the fledgling service with content. “Peyton’s Places,” a sports documentary series hosted by the middle Manning brother, was the first step in this partnership that has since blossomed into shows like Eli’s Places” starring the younger Manning himself, “Abby’s Places” with soccer star Abby Wambach, and “Papi’s Places” with former Red Sox DH David Ortiz, among others. In a world that is moving towards a more complex digital future, it may very well be human feelings that keep ESPN and Omaha Productions together.
Regardless of what happens with the “ManningCast,” it’s clear Amazon is making its gambit towards sports, with a special focus on NFL football. Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire a minority stake in the NFL's digital properties, including NFL RedZone, NFL Network, and NFL.com and even in talks with “Good Morning Football” production company Embassy Row to produce a sports show of its own.