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Amazon, DirecTV reportedly agree to re-tooled agreement for ‘Thursday Night Football’
By Keith Farner
Published:
Amazon and DirecTV have agreed to a re-tooled deal to give football fans another option to watch Thursday Night Football this season.
DirecTV will carry to commercial establishments, including bars and restaurants, this NFL season, sources have told John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal. Amazon about 4 months ago won exclusive streaming rights to the NFL package, with Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit in the booth, but there were questions about bars and restaurants since many are equipped with DirecTV. Terms were not leaked, Ourand said.
This news appears to be a significant victory for restaurant and bar owners, who now won’t have to upgrade their systems to handle streaming video without latency, a common issue with streaming live sports, especially across multiple screens.
Some of the country’s biggest chain restaurants, like Buffalo Wild Wings, sources told Ourand, are not fully equipped to handle streaming video.
CNBC reported that Amazon is the first all-streaming provider to agree to carry a weekly package of NFL games. The technology giant is paying $1 billion per season for the exclusive rights.
Amazon’s deal will now run 11 years, matching the length of the Sunday and Monday packages acquired by Disney, Comcast, ViacomCBS and Fox. The Prime Video package is for 15 Thursday night games and one pre-season game each season.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
