Before the Dallas Cowboys dominated the regular season, the big story line last year was the decline of ratings across the board leading many to wonder if football’s strangle hold on America was coming to an end. Part of this had to do with what many perceived as a lack of quality games but also the new reality of younger fans eschewing cable companies and becoming cord cutters.
This concept has made life challenging for the television industry and live events, particularly sports have been the only thing that companies have over streaming outlets. To combat this trend, the NFL experimented with live streaming before when it streamed games on Twitter and Facebook to mixed results. Today, the NFL announced that all ten Thursday Night Football games will not only be shown on CBS and NBC, but Amazon will be live streaming the games.
Amazon bid a reported $50 million for the rights and beat out Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The company already had a relationship with the NFL due to their documentary series All or Nothing which will feature the Rams this year.
Thursday Night Football has only expanded in recent years, starting off as the first game of the season, then the NFL Network began airing Thursday night games in the back half of the season and is now a ten week event.
The Thursday games are often the subject of gripes who feel that outside of the opening game, Thursday Night Football is the place where the league allows the bad teams to be showcased in prime time. For the Rams, it means that this is likely the only place where fans can see Todd Gurley and Jared Goff in prime time as they are unlikely to get a Monday Night Football slot and unless they get flexed later in the season won’t be featured on Sunday Night Football as that is the league’s flagship game every week.
This move is a sea change for the NFL as they’ve always been very conservative in the way they choose to broadcast their games but even a league as powerful as the NFL recognize that times change. If the league finds success with this endeavor then its possible that they expand allowing Amazon to stream more games in the future.
For Amazon, this represents a pathway for more subscribers. The streaming outlet has expanded in the television world by allowing high profile directors such as David O’Russell and Woody Allen to make shows for them and they’ve also gotten into distributing theatrical films such as last year’s Oscar winner Manchester by the Sea. By getting into live sports, Amazon has a way to distinguish itself from Netflix who presently do not have any major footholds into the sports world much less live programming in general.
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