Prime Video to Broadcast Black Friday NFL Game by 2023 ‘At the Latest’

Football fans may be getting their post-Thanksgiving football feasts sooner rather than later. According to NBC’s Peter King, Amazon Prime Video is doing its part to make sure it broadcasts at least one NFL game on Black Friday, all in the name of consumerism.

“What better marketing tool for Amazon Prime than to put a game in the wheelhouse of their consumers, on the busiest shopping day of the year?” he asked. “With so many shoppers eschewing brick-and-mortar stores in favor of shopping from the couch, imagine the marketing heft when commercials can be targeted at stay-at-home shoppers.”

There’s no doubt that the interconnectivity between Amazon’s broadcasting arm and Amazon’s shopping arm is a no-brainer, especially when Amazon broadcasts through its Prime Video client and can offer pop-ups on products throughout the broadcast. Amazon’s 1-2 punch of football and shopping may very well result in one of the most profitable shopping days in history.

There is, however, one thing that must change in order for Amazon’s Black Friday deal to go through — the NFL ruling that does not allow teams to play more than one game a year on short rest. Currently, no team can play a game on “short rest” — fewer than 6 days between contests — meaning that the teams playing on Thanksgiving (Thursday) cannot participate in the traditional “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts during the season.

While we likely won’t see teams go through this gauntlet in weeks that are close in proximity to one another, you can bet the higher-profile teams that don’t have a Thanksgiving game will be suiting up on Black Friday and on a “Thursday Night Football” game.

Amazon, along with other streaming entities like ESPN+, has been pushing the NFL for specific schedule requests. Reports indicate ESPN+ will likely be the exclusive home for one of the league’s five games scheduled to be played at international venues. Whether ESPN gets one of the UK games, the Germany game, or the Mexico game, rest assured it’ll be available to stream on ESPN+.