Amazon jumped into the NFL television world by acquiring Thursday Night Football rights in the recent deals.
And now, Amazon Prime Video will have to get busy as it takes over a year earlier than anticipated. The 15-game package will begin in 2022, not 2023 as FOX bailed on Thursday Night Football much in the same way it did with the U.S. Open golf tournament when it handed those rights to NBC.
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 second 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.