The NFL and Amazon are approaching an agreement to grant Prime Video rights for exclusive streaming of many games. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, sharing that a deal could be announced as early as next week.
The deal would not start until the 2021-2022 season, according to WSJ sources. Amazon would get exclusive streaming rights for a “significant number” of games on Thursday nights, while Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN would maintain deals for Sunday and Monday night games. These negotiations would take effect after the 2022-2023 season.
The news of the NFL making a deal with a streamer is not surprising. Last year, we reported that Amazon, Apple and Google were interested in marking the rights to the games. With an agreement already in place to broadcast select games from Thursday, Amazon was a strong competitor in the fight for exclusive rights to more games.
How does the NFL feel about streaming?
“We are made for broadcasting TV, but we are open for broadcasting,” a powerful NFL broker told Peter King of NBC Sports last year. “It’s the next big thing, and technology companies want to be involved in our game. They should. We are the only money earner in the sport ”.
The WSJ reported that a deal with Amazon made sense for the League, as broadcasters were losing on Thursday’s games due to the high price of carrying programming and lower ratings than Sunday and Monday events.
As for the Sunday Ticket package, the WSJ reports that the NFL is not renegotiating at the moment. DirecTV will continue to have the Sunday Ticket during the 2022 season.
Jess Barnes