Now that more data and information are available, Amazon Prime’s first broadcast of Thursday Night Football seems to have been a touchdown for subscribership.
Key Details
- An executive memo from Amazon says that last week’s inaugural broadcast of Thursday Night Football drew a record number of Amazon Prime subscribers in just a three-hour period, eclipsing several of their other major sales days like Prime Day and Black Friday.
- “By every measure, Thursday Night Football on Prime Video was a resounding success,” says Amazon VP Jay Marine.
- “While we’re still waiting for official Nielsen ratings, our measurement shows that the audience numbers exceeded all of our expectations for viewership.”
- Nielsen has still not released streaming numbers or ratings for the first broadcast, although Amazon previously told advertisers to expect 12.5 million viewers. It is possible Amazon Prime received over 13 million viewers or higher.
- “But judging by expectations from Amazon’s execs, the audience for last week’s Chargers-Chiefs game easily will surpass 10 million viewers,” says Sports Business Journal.
Why it’s important
Depending on how high the viewership numbers come in, Amazon Prime appears to be chopping up another major victory in the streaming wars.
It is currently in possession of one of the most discussed television shows of the moment in addition to one of the most popular sports games in American broadcasting.
“As we await the actual numbers, clearly, as they were with the September 1 two-episode premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Prime Video is feeling pretty chuffed,” says Deadline.
The success of the broadcast continues to solidify the place of streaming as the future of the entertainment industry.
Backing up a bit
As we reported previously, Amazon signed an exclusive deal with the NFL to broadcast Thursday Night Football for the next 11 years at a cost of $1 billion per year. They also announced a deal with DirecTV to air games in public venues over Amazon Prime.
Viewers reported the first broadcast was overall successful with some minor issues, including problematic sound quality, buffering issues, video synchronization issues, and delays.
“Amazon is betting heavily on sports broadcasting with the hope that it will boost its Prime membership. The Prime subscription program, which charges $139 per year for a host of perks including free shipping, now has some 200 million subscribers worldwide. Amazon has said there are 80 million active Prime Video households in the US,” says CNBC.
