After three seasons, Amazon’s coverage of Thursday Night Football still isn’t quite matching the package’s prior linear viewership, but it’s getting closer and continues to solidify itself as a vital part of the NFL’s broadcast landscape.
The streaming and online retail giant finished its 2024 season of TNF on Prime Video with an average per-game audience of 13.2 million, according to Nielsen panel measurements—up 11% from last year’s comparable 11.86 million and by 38% from 9.58 million in 2022. When including Amazon’s Black Friday game between the Chiefs and Raiders, which drew an average of 13.5 million viewers, the year-over-year lift increases to 13%.
Those figures are still less than the 16.2 million viewers on average who watched Thursday night games in 2021 on Fox and the NFL Network. Now three seasons in, though, Amazon’s coverage continues to show meaningful gains, and it draws a younger audience than the rest of the NFL’s broadcast partners. TNF games had a median viewer age of 49, nearly seven years younger than viewers watching the NFL on linear TV, and more than 14 years younger than the league’s audience on broadcast networks.
Along those lines, Amazon said this season was the most watched for the Thursday night package among viewers ages 18–34 with an average of 2.61 million viewers per game in that demographic—up by 37% from the final season of Thursday games on linear TV in 2021. The company also registered new viewership highs in the age groups of 18–49 and 25–54.
It’s also a wealthier audience, as Nielsen data showed TNF viewers had a median household income of $101,800, 16% higher than the comparable NFL average on linear networks.
“We could not be more proud of our partnership with The NFL, our viewership growth, and the innovations we’ve initiated for fans and brands over these first three seasons of TNF on Prime,” said Jay Marine, Prime Video’s global head of sports and ads, in a statement.
The Bigger Picture
Perhaps even more impactful, though, the company continued to show advancement in its game production, using its data, analytics, and artificial intelligence capabilities to full advantage. Amazon also used its NFL foothold to help extend its reach further into both the NBA with a rights deal beginning next season and the NHL with weekly Monday night coverage in Canada.
When also including a local rights deal for the Yankees, Amazon now has a presence in all four major U.S. men’s pro leagues, as well as in top women’s sports with rights for the WNBA and NWSL. It also is a major distributor for the restructured and rebranded Main Street Sports regional network operator, formerly known as Diamond Sports Group.
Amazon’s success with large-scale NFL streaming, meanwhile, has also helped the league move forward with its separate and historic endeavor with Netflix for Christmas Day games.
The NFL season isn’t quite done for Amazon, however, as it will have one of the upcoming wild-card games for the first time, an event that could challenge the league’s streaming record of 24.3 million average viewers just set by Netflix. That Amazon playoff game will be on either Jan. 11 or 12, and will be finalized after the end of the regular season.
