Even before it becomes the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football next year, football fans have a lot to look forward to on Prime Video.
Now just one season away from its biggest leap into sports coverage, Amazon announced its latest plans for the 2021 NFL campaign on Monday, three days before its Thursday Night Football streaming schedule begins on Prime Video with Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams visiting Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks.
It’s the final season of what the NFL calls the “tri-cast” model for its Thursday night games, with Fox, Amazon, and NFL Network all broadcasting its TNF slate, a rights split the league launched in 2017. Starting next season, Prime Video will be the exclusive home of all the action as part of an 11-year deal worth a reported $1 billion per year.
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But even before the 2022 campaign commences, Amazon has a robust, multifaceted plan to finish the final season of the tri-cast era strong. It starts Thursdays at 7 p.m. ET with the NFL Next pregame show featuring Kay Adams, Chris Long, Andrew Hawkins, and Daniel Jeremiah, providing highlights and analysis along with a social media component and looking at that night’s game with AWS’s Next Gen Stats. When the TNF game starts, Amazon will provide three unique ways to watch, aside from the Fox and NFL Network simulcast.
- Amazon’s traditional Prime Video feed will feature the broadcast duo of Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer for the fourth consecutive season.
- For the second straight year, Amazon’s “Scouts Feed” with Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks, and Joy Taylor will dive deep into the X’s and O’s, breaking down each play in real time from an expert’s perspective. The feed is also available on Twitch.
- Twitch will once again showcase an exclusive NFL Next Live feed, with Hawkins and Kimmi Chex joined by a rotating cast of current and former players including Aqib Talib, Nick Mangold, and Malcolm Jenkins.
Additionally, a number of Twitch broadcasters — from football insiders to super-fans — will be co-streaming the TNF games live, giving enthusiasts the chance to interact and discuss games in real time. Amazon will also offer NFL content during the week leading up to Thursday’s matchups:
- Every Monday at 3 p.m. ET, NFL Comment Box will feature Hawkins and former All-Pro lineman Joe Thomas answering fans’ questions AMA style.
- Each Wednesday on Twitch, The NFL Machine will have Chex, Talib, and Mangold diving deep into the previous week’s action NFL Films style, breaking down footage in a live, interactive format.
Amazon is ramping up for its biggest foray into sports coverage yet across Prime Video and Twitch. And while its revamped, exclusive TNF deal won’t begin until 2022, there’s already a whole lot for NFL fans to enjoy here and now in the league’s first-ever 17-game regular season.
