Amazon Pushes ‘Thursday Night Football’ for Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day begins on July 12, and the company is using some of its new Prime sports offerings to promote its day of deals.

Amazon is selling a number of TVs at up to 45% off as part of its pre-Prime Day promotion so “fans can upgrade their living rooms to an optimized ‘Thursday Night Football’ watching experience.”

• Amazon became the first tech company with exclusive rights to an NFL package after striking a deal for the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” at $1 billion per season. 
• Beginning in September, the show will be led by Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit.

There will also be discounts for Amazon’s NFL fan shop and its Fire TV streaming products.

Ultimate Crown, which will see MrBeast’s and Ninja’s teams compete in League of Legends for a $150,000 prize, will stream on Prime Video and Amazon-owned Twitch beginning July 9. Prime members will be able to attend or participate in exclusive chats.

Streaming Shift

Casey Wasserman told CNBC earlier this week that sports rights’ shift toward streaming services is “the future of media,” and will not “drive more cord-cutting, but it’s certainly going to drive more revenues for sports leagues.”

He believes that rights to NFL Sunday Ticket will go to a tech company — the league reportedly wants more than $2 billion for the rights and a stake in NFL media.