Amazon to Get Exclusive NFL Rights a Year Earlier Than Expected
May 03 2021 - 12:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Joe Flint
Amazon.com Inc. will take over exclusive video rights for
"Thursday Night Football" starting in the 2022-23 season, a year
earlier than anticipated, the company and the National Football
League said Monday.
Initially, Amazon's deal with the NFL called for the tech giant
to begin streaming games in the 2023-24 season. Current rights
holder Fox Corp. agreed to exit its existing deal for the package a
season early.
Terms, including the cost of acquiring the additional year of
rights, weren't disclosed. In March, Amazon signed a 10-year deal
with the NFL to stream 15 games per season on its Prime Video
platform. The average annual rights fee is around $1.2 billion and
that is the price tag for the additional season, people familiar
with the matter said.
"This expedited deal is an immediate differentiator for us as a
service, as it gives Prime members exclusive access to the most
popular sport in the United States," said Marie Donoghue, Amazon's
vice president of global sports video.
In a memo sent to team owners reviewed by The Wall Street
Journal, the NFL said, "The decision to accelerate the launch of
TNF on Amazon for the 2022 season creates incremental economic and
strategic value for the League and our fans."
The Amazon deal marked the first time the NFL sold a package of
games exclusively to a streaming service. At the time of the deal,
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said it was a seminal moment for
both the league and the tech giant.
The games Amazon streams will only be available on television in
the local markets of the two teams playing.
Amazon previously had streaming rights for "Thursday Night
Football" while television rights were shared by Fox and the
league's NFL Network. The Amazon deal marked a significant increase
in fees from the average of $660 million a year Fox had been
paying.
The Amazon deal was one of several long-term agreements the NFL
signed in March with its video partners. Collectively, those pacts
were valued at more than $100 billion.
Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common
ownership.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 03, 2021 13:14 ET (17:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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