Thursday Night Football to Be Streamed on Amazon in 2017

Recode reports Amazon has acquired the rights to stream some Thursday Night Football games in 2017.

Last year, the National Football League experimented by letting Twitter livestream 10 Thursday night games.

This year, pro football will continue the test, but will switch it up: Amazon has bought the rights to the league’s streaming package, and will offer the games for free to its Amazon Prime subscribers around the world.

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The rest of the deal is roughly similar to the one Twitter had last year: CBS and NBC will each broadcast five games, and Amazon will stream the networks’ coverage, including their ads. Amazon will have the rights to sell a handful of ad slots per game.

We have discussed in the past how the NFL is behind the times in the digital streaming revolution. If anything, this feels like a half-step backwards. A year ago these Thursday night livestreams were available to everybody since Twitter is free. This year you will need to be a Prime subscriber to stream these Thursday night games.