Amazon Looking to Broadcast NFL Game on Black Friday
Even in the offseason, there is no lack of intrigue for the NFL. On Monday, the Sports Business Journal reported a number of requests that the league’s broadcast partners have made as the 2022-23 season schedule is being finalized.
Chief among them is that Amazon Prime Video, who is becoming the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football this fall, wants the NFL to allow them to air a game on Black Friday. Thanksgiving has been associated with football for generations, so it is a bit surprising that the league has never moved to own the next day as well, but Amazon’s request is less about expanding the broadcast footprint of pro football, and more about getting customers on their retail site during the busiest shopping day of the year.
SBJ says though that the league is “lukewarm” on the idea.
Similarly, Amazon’s broadcast partnership with the Premier League in the UK allows them to own all of the EPL games played on Boxing Day. While the move would make financial sense for Amazon, SBJ reports that the league is not likely to make the move this season.
New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft first teased the idea of a Black Friday NFL game last year shortly after the deal with Amazon was announced.
Other schedule requests made by the NFL’s media partners include ESPN’s streaming service ESPN+ likely being the exclusive home for one of the league’s five games scheduled to be played at international venues. With three games to be played in the UK, one in Germany, and more more in Mexico, ESPN+ seems to be in line to exclusively broadcast one of the contests.
SBJ also learned that ESPN and corporate sibling ABC will share an NFL doubleheader of sorts as they line up contracts to allow ABC to broadcast three “Monday Night Football” games per season. The two games this fall will have staggered start times on the networks, but will likely overlap for at least a portion of their respective windows. While timing hasn’t officially been finalized yet, the worldwide leader expects the games to happen during the first month of the season.
ESPN is also expected to open their “MNF” slate with a megacast presentation consisting of multiple broadcasts of their first game of the season across a variety of channels and platforms; undoubtedly one of those viewing options will be a ManningCast.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon 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 Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.