Amazon wins exclusive streaming rights for NFL playoff game
Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco (15) hands off to running back Jerome Ford (34) during the first half against the New York Jets at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Dec 28
By Eva Rothenberg, CNN
New York (CNN) — Amazon has landed the rights to exclusively stream one National Football League playoff game next season on its Prime Video platform, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
The deal comes less than a month after NBCUniversal’s Peacock became the first-ever platform to exclusively livestream an NFL playoff game. The January 13 matchup, a Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, made history as the most streamed event in US history. The game was streamed by more than 20 million viewers and boosted audience traffic on Peacock, “driving the Internet to its largest U.S. usage ever on a single day,” said NBCUniversal at the time.
In comparison, the Wild Card game between the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans on January 13 averaged 29.2 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital and Telemundo, and ranked as the most watched Saturday NFL Wild Card game on NBC since 2014, according to a news release from NBC Sports.
The source said Peacock did not lose the rights to exclusively stream a playoff game. Rather, Amazon earned the deal by hitting certain performance benchmarks in the company’s 2021 streaming deal with the NFL, which gave the platform the sole right to stream “Thursday Night Football” starting last season.
Earlier this month, Amazon reported a 24% year-over-year increase in total viewership of “Thursday Night Football” this season, citing Nielsen.
“The November 30 Seahawks-Cowboys game attracted 15.3 million viewers, becoming Prime Video’s most watched TNF game ever,” the company wrote in a news release announcing its fourth-quarter financial results.
The NFL declined to comment and Amazon has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
The move by Amazon comes after Tuesday’s announcement from Disney’s ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros Discovery that the media giants would jointly launch a sports streaming platform. Warner Bros Discovery is the parent company of CNN.
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