How Rupert Murdoch Changed Sports Media Forever
Ahead of its unprecedented NFL coverage, Amazon has secured some level of legitimacy.
The e-commerce and media giant has announced a three-year partnership with Nielsen that will allow the market measurement firm to provide ratings for its “Thursday Night Football” game broadcasts.
It marks the first time that Nielsen will include ratings from a streaming service in its weekly television-viewing report — which is used by advertisers to determine the value of commercial slots.
For the last two years, the company has tracked general streaming numbers from big players in the space such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon’s Prime Video — but never for a live streaming program.
Nielsen will track the viewership numbers for “TNF” across both the Prime Video and Twitch streams.
The partnership announcement comes with convenient timing: Recently, Amazon reportedly told ad execs that it expects “only” about 12.5 million viewers per broadcast — less than in previous seasons.
After purchasing the exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” for $1 billion, Amazon’s long saga to be the exclusive carrier of a weekly NFL game finally becomes reality next month when the Chargers and Chiefs kick off on Sept. 15.
