How Amazon's Prime Video Will Differentiate the NFL's Thursday Night Football

Thursday Night Football is about to look pretty different. Amazon's Prime Video officially took over the exclusive broadcast of TNF in an 11-year deal with the NFL, meaning the streaming service will be the only place to watch the league Thursday nights. Prime Video is no stranger to TNF, having tricast the games for the past several seasons. However, tonight's matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs will be the first exclusive TNF match on Prime Video, besides an Aug. 25 preseason game. “When the national packages came up, we knew it was a once in a decade or a once in a generation opportunity to partner with the NFL and create a new destination for event programming on our service,” Marie Donoghue, Amazon's vp of global video, told Adweek. “It was a no-brainer if we could get that deal done.” For Prime Video, the priority wasn’t just providing the same experience as other broadcast partners but rather elevating it. Amazon Prime Video Takes Over Thursday Night Football in Super Bowl Spot “We have a much higher bar than that internally at Amazon,” said Donoghue. “We did have to make sure we would have a great broadcast.” Because Prime Video is an OTT service, the streamer can provide a main broadcast alongside several alternate streams, giving consumers a wider variety of content options. “We want everybody to come in, everybody is welcome on Thursday nights,” said Donoghue. “The advantage of OTT is we can provide different functionality, different optionality and maybe provide an additional or more engaging experience for certain demos.” Prime Video teamed up with the sports content creator team Dude Perfect for TNF, and TNF with Storm & Kremer, featuring Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer, will make two appearances as part of the company’s alternate streaming options. The pair are the first and only all-woman broadcast booth in the NFL. Fans can also expect more alternate streams on the way. “That’s a way to have incremental, engaging opportunities for younger fans,” said Donoghue. Donoghue emphasized that Prime Video’s offerings won’t be “gimmicky,” but rather provide multiple options for viewers. Amazon's x-ray technology will be in play, as will enhanced replays and multiple broadcast teams. Ahead of the game, Amazon also revealed enhanced Alexa features on Fire TV. For instance, fans can use their voice to access the feed's x-ray capabilities and team and player stats. “We put some of the tools that are normally only in the hands of the producers in the hands of fans,” said Donoghue. “Our approach is a great broadcast with lots of optionality and customization if you want it, and opportunities to engage more with the content.” Key sponsors will add to the broadcast. Little Caesars is the presenting sponsor of the TNF Tonight pregame show, including a segment about player preparation. Fans can also order their pizza for the game using an on-screen QR code, receive perks with orders and win prizes. Additionally, DraftKings will be the exclusive pregame and in-game odds provider for TNF. During the pregame show, the company's odds will be the basis for the TNF Predictions segment. A content opportunity From the past several years with the NFL tricast, Prime Video has learned that fans that watch on an OTT platform watch longer than on a traditional broadcast, which the company views as a “huge opportunity.” Though the NFL expects ratings to be down from Fox's numbers initially on Prime Video, the streaming service still broke one million viewers for its preseason game on Aug. 25. Nielsen is measuring the NFL on Prime Video the same way it measures live TV. The measurement company also found that TNF on Prime Video audience was five years younger than the average audience for NFL preseason games this year (51.2 median age vs. 56.1 median age). The streaming service hopes that it can use TNF to bring more eyeballs into the Prime Video ecosystem overall. To promote the TNF debut even further, Amazon.com featured a full page takeover and countdown a day before the game, even sending a push notification to Prime members in the U.S. from the Amazon app. “There are people who don’t have Prime and will be attracted to Prime because of Lord of the Rings or Thursday Night Football, but then there are some people who have Prime but don’t engage with Prime Video, so we think there’s an opportunity to have Prime members engage with Prime Video,” said Donoghue, also noting that customers coming to Prime for TNF will also be made aware of the other benefits the subscription service has, including audio and shipping. “It reminds me a little bit of how NBC used for years Sunday Night Football to promote and drive awareness for their other programs,” she added. “It will make people aware of all great Prime Video content, to the extent we have more sports content and we’re able to market back and forth. You’ll notice us promoting our other sports properties in the broadcast." And on the ad sales side, Donoghue views TNF as a “game changer” for Amazon. “Amazon has a strong ad sales business, but this is the most premium video inventory in the market,” she said. Amazon knows that ad sales play an important part in the customer experience when it comes to watching sports, and Donoghue said it’s important for the company to have a variety of advertisers and a good experience overall.