Amazon's first NFL live stream of the 2018 season will take place Thursday night, and the company is adding a couple twists to its broadcast.
The game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams is the first of the 11 NFL contests Amazon is scheduled to stream this season, following its debut with the league the prior year.
Starting with Thursday's game, kicking off 8:20 p.m. Eastern time, Amazon is making the broadcasts available to everyone for free — if you watch it through Twitch, the company's streaming service best known for showing feeds of live video games.
For Prime members, the game will be available through the Prime Video app and online at Amazon's NFL Thursday Night Football page.
Amazon is also making this year's NFL games more interactive for viewers through a new feature called "X-Ray," which gives live stats and player information on the screen during the game and makes it easy to shop for merchandise on Amazon.com. It's only available to those watching through Amazon's Fire TV device.
Viewers will also get the option of choosing between the Fox broadcast with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman as commentators, or a separate stream featuring an all-female duo of Andrea Kremer and Hannah Storm.
Upgrading its NFL experience marks Amazon's latest effort at becoming a bigger player in live sports. The company has also struck deals to live stream Premier League soccer games and U.S. Open tennis matches. Amazon paid $50 million for the rights to broadcast 10 NFL games last year, and is reported to have paid a 30 percent premium this year to renew the deal, adding an extra game.
