Amazon and the National Football League announced today that in 2023, Prime Video will exclusively stream a newly scheduled "Black Friday" game the Friday after Thanksgiving Day. The first-ever NFL Black Friday game will take place Friday, Nov. 24, 2023 with an expected kick off of 3 p.m. ET. The participating teams will be announced when the 2023 schedule is released.
"Thanksgiving is synonymous with football and we're excited to give our fans another day of NFL action during this holiday weekend," said Hans Schroeder, chief operating officer for NFL Media. "Amazon is uniquely positioned to partner with us for this game as Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year for their business."
"Thursday Night Football has already proven tremendously successful on Prime Video, delivering millions of viewers every week, and we're excited to expand our relationship with the NFL with the inaugural Black Friday game, starting next year," said Jay Marine, Global Head of Sports, Prime Video. "Black Friday is the unofficial start of the holiday season, and we're thrilled to kick it off with a gift for football fans across the country with this new game."
"We are gratified by the NFL's support, and by the incredible reaction we've had from viewers to our broadcast, and are thrilled to give fans another game with Al, Kirk, Kaylee, and the entire TNF crew on Black Friday in 2023," said Marie Donoghue, Vice President of Global Sports Video, Amazon.
Speaking at Tuesday's Fall League Meeting in New York, Commissioner Roger Goodell said there was no commitment beyond 2023, but the league does not usually "do things for one year."
"I would call that entire weekend a football weekend," Goodell said of Thanksgiving weekend. "We think there's room for the NFL on Friday. We're excited by it, we think it's gonna be a great thing and we'll announce plans as we go."
Through the first five games of its inaugural season on Prime Video, Thursday Night Football is averaging 10.8 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research and is up +48% from the first five TNF games in 2021 among viewers in the hard-to-reach adult 18-34 demographic, and up +25% in adults 18-49.
The NFL is the most valuable content across the sports and entertainment landscape with NFL games making up all 34 of television's most-watched programs since the start of September. Through Week 5 of the 2022 regular season, NFL games are averaging 16.8 million viewers per game.
The NFL and Amazon first partnered on game distribution as part of a Tri-Cast distribution model (along with NBC, CBS and NFL Network) of Thursday Night Football during the 2017 season. That relationship expanded in the spring of 2021 when, in the NFL's first ever all-digital package, Prime Video acquired the rights to be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football.
Prime Video is the first streaming service to air a season-long exclusive national broadcast package with the NFL, with new pregame, halftime, and postgame shows as well as fan-favorite interactive features like X-Ray and Next Gen Stats powered by AWS. Viewers can stream from the web at amazon.com or by using the Prime Video app, which is available on phones, tablets, set-top boxes, game consoles, smart TVs, and on phones and tablets with NFL+. Each Thursday Night Football game also streams live on Twitch and is available on over-the-air TV stations in the two home markets of the competing teams, as well as in Spanish language on Prime Video. The Thursday Night Football broadcast team includes legendary play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and five-time Emmy-winning analyst Kirk Herbstreit in the booth, with award-winning reporter Kaylee Hartung on the sideline.
For all the latest information regarding TNF on Prime Video, visit amazon.com/TNF and follow NFL on Prime on Twitter. To join Prime or start a free 30-day trial, visit amazon.com/prime.
