Amazon to Live-Stream NFL Thursday Night Football Games, Replacing Twitter

Amazon was awarded Tuesday the streaming rights to 10 of the NFL's Thursday Night Football games for the 2017 season, according to SportsBusiness Journal's John Ourand. 

Amazon reportedly paid $50 million for the rights, which is five times more than what Twitter paid a season ago. Ourand added Facebook and YouTube also bid for the streaming package. 

According to Ourand, Thursday Night Football broadcasts on Amazon will only be accessible to Amazon Prime customers. Conversely, fans who wanted to stream games on Twitter last season could do so by signing up for the social media service free of charge. 

While this is the first major splash for Amazon in terms of live sports rights, the company has reportedly been interested in acquiring various packages over the past few months. 

In November 2016, the Wall Street Journal's Shalini Ramachandran (via Awful Announcing's Andrew Bucholtz) reported Amazon "floated creating a premium, exclusive sports package that would accompany a Prime membership." 

Ramachandran also noted "Amazon made a specific offer to be the exclusive licensee of NBA League Pass, but the NBA turned them down to stick with their current many-outlet approach," per Bucholtz. 

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