‘TNF’ Draws Record Prime Subscriptions for Amazon

Amazon’s media deal with the NFL is already paying off.

Prime Video broadcast its first “Thursday Night Football” game last week as part of an exclusive 11-year deal worth an annual $1 billion.

The game, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs outduel the Los Angeles Chargers, fetched a record number of Prime subscriptions, according to a staff note from Jay Marine, Amazon’s vice president in charge of Prime Video.

• The game brought in more Prime sign-ups over a three-hour period than any other day — including Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and Prime Day.
• Prime costs $139 annually.

Marine also said the game drew a record primetime audience for the service in the U.S.

Amazon was targeting 12.5 million viewers per game. “Thursday Night Football” averaged 13.2 million viewers in its last season on Fox.

“While we’re still waiting for official Nielsen ratings, our measurement shows that the audience numbers exceeded all of our expectations for viewership,” Marine said. 

Amazon has a three-year deal with Nielsen, which marks the first time Nielsen will include ratings from a streaming service in its weekly television-viewing report.

“By every measure, ‘Thursday Night Football’ on Prime Video was a resounding success,” Marine added.

Prime’s Production Plans

“TNF” executive producer Fred Gaudelli has grand designs for Amazon’s NFL deal.

“I want to be better than ‘Sunday Night Football,’” Gaudelli said. “We have Al [Michaels], we have Kirk [Herbstreit]. There isn’t any real reason that our broadcast shouldn’t be as good as anyone else’s, and hopefully better.”