NFL, Amazon Renew Thursday Night Football Contract, Add Additional Game

The NFL and Amazon announced on Wednesday that they have renewed and extended their agreement to live-stream Thursday Night Football games on Amazon Prime and Twitch.

The multiyear deal calls for all 11 Thursday Night Football games that air on Fox to be streamed live on Amazon Prime and Twitch as well. Also, one Saturday night game played in the second half of the 2020 regular season will stream exclusively on Prime Video and Twitch while also being televised in the markets of the participating teams.

Amazon and the NFL began their partnership in 2017, and the extension of their deal ensures that Thursday Night Football will have a home on a streaming platform for the foreseeable future.

NFL chief media and business officer Brian Rolapp said the following about the extension of the NFL's partnership with Amazon: "As our relationship has expanded, Amazon has become a trusted and valued partner of the NFL. Extending this partnership around Thursday Night Football continues our critical mission of delivering NFL games to as many fans in as many ways as possible both in the United States and around the world."

Marie Donoghue, Amazon vice president of global sports video, also commented on the new deal:

"We are thrilled to renew our Thursday Night Football deal with the NFL, and are excited to expand our relationship to include exclusive global streaming rights to an additional regular season game in 2020. We know Prime members and the Twitch community around the world love the NFL, and we remain committed to giving them the best and most customizable streaming experience possible, with a broad selection of premium content available at their fingertips."

The NFL noted that Thursday Night Football averaged 15.4 million viewers across all platforms last year, which was up 4 percent from 2018. Of that 15.4 million, an average of 1.0 million watched on Prime Video, Twitch, NFL digital, Fox Sports digital and Verizon Media mobile, which was up 43 percent from the previous year.

While most football fans still watch NFL games traditionally on television stations like Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and NFL Network, a growing number in the United States and across the world utilize streaming services rather than traditional cable or satellite dish.

As that number continues to expand, there will likely be more and more demand for NFL games to be available on streaming services, and the extension of the partnership with Amazon is a move in the right direction for the NFL in that regard.