After watching its quarterly profits double in its latest earnings announcement, it looks like Amazon has decided to use some of that extra money to acquire the NFL's Thursday night streaming rights in a deal that didn't come cheap for the online behemoth.
The NFL and Amazon announced on Thursday that the two sides have signed off on a deal that will allow the online company to stream Thursday Night Football games for the next two seasons. According to ESPN.com, the two-year deal is worth roughly $130 million, meaning that Amazon will be paying about $65 million per season.
Amazon first acquired Thursday streaming rights in 2017 after outbidding online companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Brian Rolapp, the NFL's Chief Media and Business Office, said that sticking with Amazon for two more seasons was a no-brainer.
"Having over 100 million Amazon Prime members provides a massive platform to distribute Thursday Night Football digitally, not only to our fans in the United States but also around the world," Rolapp said in a statement.
The one catch in this deal is that you'll have to be a Prime subscriber if you want to stream the Thursday games on Amazon. The price of a Prime subscription will be going up from $99 to $119 in June.
The Thursday night set of games has turned into a cash cow for the NFL. Besides the $65 million per season the league will be getting from Amazon, the NFL will also be getting roughly $660 million per season from Fox, which won the television rights to Thursday night games in January. Fox will be paying $3.3 billion over the course of its five year deal. If you're scoring at home, that means the NFL will be pulling in $725 million in rights fees for Thursday nights alone in 2018.
For Amazon, the reported $65 million cost for the streaming package is a 30 percent increase over the $50 million that the company reportedly paid last year. It's also a gigantic increase over the $10 million that Twitter paid for streaming rights in 2016. Of course, the extra money is probably worth it, because the online company is getting an impressive slate of games this year.
Amazon will be streaming a total of 11 games in 2018, starting in Week 4 with Vikings at Rams. Amazon will only be streaming games that also air on Fox and won't be streaming on Thanksgiving, as that's not part of the deal.
Amazon has been dabbling in NFL-related material since 2016 when it unveiled it's "All or Nothing" series. With "All or Nothing," Amazon developed a documentary where the company followed around one team for an entire season. Over the past two years, the online company has documented an entire season of both the Cardinals (2015 season) and Rams (2016 season). This year, "All or Nothing" will focus on the Cowboys' 2017 season, with the series being released to Prime subscribers on April 27.
As for the Thursday slate, here's the entire Amazon streaming schedule.
- Week 4, Sept. 27: Vikings at Rams, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 5, Oct. 4: Colts at Patriots, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 6, Oct. 11: Eagles at Giants, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 7, Oct. 18: Broncos at Cardinals, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 8, Oct. 25: Dolphins at Texans, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 9, Nov. 1: Raiders at 49ers, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 10, Nov. 8: Panthers at Steelers, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 11, Nov. 15: Packers at Seahawks, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 13, Nov. 29: Saints at Cowboys, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 14, Dec. 6: Jaguars at Titans, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
- Week 15, Dec. 13: Chargers at Chiefs, 8:20 p.m, FOX/NFL Network/Amazon
For the rest of the Thursday night schedule, be sure to click here.