$50M NFL Streaming Rights Go To Amazon, Thursday Night Games Go Live

The National Football League tested out an idea to join 21st-century entertainment last year when it allowed Twitter to stream Thursday games live on its platform. It was supposed to be an experiment and based on the fact that it is repeating this experiment with a different platform in Amazon, it seemed to be a success. The retail giant beat out several other tech giants that expressed interest in hosting the games.

Amazon will be streaming 10 Thursday night games for the NFL, CNET reports, for the upcoming season. According to the people who are familiar with the matter, it seems the merchant company beat out the competition for the streaming pact that lasts the whole year by paying $50 million.

With the microblogging platform being the first to actually stream the games last year, it was only natural that Twitter would be one of the bidders that Amazon beat out. Others included Facebook and YouTube, which made for a quietly fierce competition among the online giants.

In the end, Amazon won out and the streaming will be available for free for its Amazon Prime members. No news on whether or not regular members will be able to actually watch the online streaming, which is likely a tactic by the company to woo new members.

Considering the fact that American football is a consistent ratings monsters due to its overwhelming popularity among US viewers, the retail giant certainly has the chance to actually boost its Prime numbers with new blood consisting of sports fans. Other than actually streaming the games themselves, however, Amazon will also be showing footage from CBS and NBC, which will be broadcasting their coverage of five games, Recode reports.

During the streaming, the retailer also stated that there might also be some additional ads promoting some of its video products and services. Amazon isn’t the only one to have the rights to stream the games either as Verizon will also be offering live viewing to its wireless consumers.