Tech

Amazon will stream Thursday Night Football for the next two seasons

Tom Brady
Getty Images
Key Points
  • Amazon and the National Football League have once again reached a deal to allow Prime members to stream Thursday night football games.
  • The games will also be available to Twitch viewers.
Amazon and NFL renew Thursday Night Football streaming partnership
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Amazon and NFL renew Thursday Night Football streaming partnership

Amazon and the National Football League have once again reached a deal to allow Prime members to stream Thursday Night Football games for the next two seasons.

This is the second year Amazon has won a contract with the NFL, reportedly paying $50 million to stream the ten Thursday night games last season, beating out Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. In 2016, Twitter reportedly paid $10 million for the same rights.

The battle for sports content has been heating up between the tech giants over the last few years. Facebook recently announced that it would exclusively stream 25 Major League Baseball games while YouTube made a deal with Los Angeles' Major League Soccer team.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said on stage in February that she would "love to stream the NFL," but clearly Amazon won out once again.

Prime is Amazon's $99-a-year membership program which gives users access to free two-day shipping and other perks alongside the Thursday night streaming. It has more than 100 million paid members worldwide.

Tom Brady
Getty Images

Interestingly, the games will also be available to users of Amazon's streaming service, Twitch. You don't need to have an Amazon Prime account to use Twitch, so viewing the games there will be free.

The announcement comes as Amazon reports bang-up first quarter earnings that sent its stock soaring 7 percent after-hours.

"Amazon was a tremendous partner for Thursday Night Football in 2017 and as we continue our mission of delivering NFL games to fans whether they watch on television or on digital platforms," the NFL's chief media officer, Brian Rolapp, said in a statement, "We are excited to work with them again for the next two seasons."

This post has been updated to reflect that Amazon confirmed to CNBC that users will be able to watch Thursday Night Football games on Twitch for free.

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