The NFL is adding a day-after-Thanksgiving game to its schedule in 2023, and it will stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The addition of the “Black Friday” game to Amazon’s package of streamed NFL contests is a vote of confidence in Prime Video’s performance as a media partner.
In its first year as the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football,” Prime Video is delivering a higher percentage of younger viewers compared to NFL games on traditional TV.
“Thursday Night Football” is averaging 10.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, with an increase of 48% among viewers in the 18-34 age group compared to last season.
Black Friday is the biggest day of the year for many retailers, kicking off the Christmas shopping season with deals for consumers. Having an NFL game on one of the busiest business days for Amazon is likely to bring new viewers to the game and provide another entry point to the site for consumers at a time when they are in a buying mood.
“Amazon is uniquely positioned to partner with us for this game as Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year for their business,” said Hans Schroeder, chief operating officer for NFL Media.
So far, Amazon has not done any kind of interactive in-game features to pull Prime Video viewers of “Thursday Night Football” into the retail site.
Marie Donohue, vice president of sports for Prime Video, said at a news conference there are no plans to alter that approach when the Black Friday game airs next year.
Amazon is paying more than $1 billion a year for the rights to 15 Thursday games a season through 2032. The league and the company did not disclose terms for the Nov. 24, 2023, game, but there are reports Amazon will pay another $50 million for the rights.
The Thursday night prime-time games on Prime Video do not include the contests played on Thanksgiving, which are part of NBC’s package.
Schroeder called the “Thursday Night Football” package “a great success so far.”
The Black Friday game will have a noon Pacific kickoff time. The teams will be revealed when the 2023 schedule is announced.
Traditional TV viewing is in a steady decline due to viewers who have migrated to streaming platforms for video content. Younger viewers have been leading the way on that front, with many of them forgoing pay TV subscriptions.
The decline of live TV viewing of scripted programming has only made the NFL more potent. The league’s games account for the top 34 of television’s most-watched programs since the start of September. Through the fifth week of the 2022 regular season, NFL games are averaging 16.8 million viewers.
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