NFL accelerates the start of the League’s first ever all-digital package one year ahead of schedule
MAY 3, 2021: The National Football League announced today that Amazon Prime Video will be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football beginning with the 2022 season. Amazon will distribute Primetime’s 2nd most-watched show across hundreds of compatible digital devices. The NFL’s original agreement with Amazon, announced as part of a larger series of media distribution deals this past March, had Amazon Prime Video distributing Thursday Night Football starting with the 2023 season.
With this development, the 2021 season will be the last for Thursday Night Football on FOX. As part of the recent long-term media deals, FOX will continue to produce the National Football Conference (NFC) package of Sunday afternoon games with a focus on America’s Game of the Week, the most-watched show in all of television for the last 12 seasons and the most-watched NFL window for the last 20 seasons.
The NFL and Amazon first partnered on Thursday Night Football as part of a tri-cast distribution model during the 2017 season, initially with CBS/NBC and then with FOX starting in 2018.
With its new media distribution agreements the NFL has expanded its digital footprint to reach a broader audience and enhanced the ability of its media partners to innovate around their productions and provide interactive elements such as stats/data, chat and integrated social feeds as part of their digital presentations.
The NFL continues to be the only sports league that delivers all of its games – regular season and playoffs – on free, over-the-air television. (Thursday Night Football will be carried on free over-the-air television in the broadcast markets of the participating teams.)
