Amazon Taking Over NFL ‘Thursday Night Football’ In 2022, Fox, NFL Network Out
Monday, May 3, 2021 at 03:16PM By Barry Janoff
May 3, 2021: The NFL said today that Amazon Prime Video would be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football beginning with the 2022 season.
The NFL's original agreement with Amazon, unveiled as part of a larger series of media distribution deals this past March, saw Amazon Prime Video distributing Thursday Night Football starting with the 2023 season, paying $1 billion per year, according to industry analysts.
The deal is now put at $1.2 billion per year, also according to industry analysts.
Games would continue to air on local broadcast stations in the home markets of the teams playing in the Thursday Night Football telecasts.
“We look forward to bringing Thursday Night Football exclusively to Prime members in 2022, a year earlier than previously announced,” Marie Donoghue, Amazon vp-global sports video, said via the company.
“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.”
The 2021 season will be the last for Thursday Night Football on Fox, which took over rights in 2018.
NFL Network, the television home of the NFL, will continue to televise a select schedule of exclusive NFL games on a yearly basis.
Fox will continue to produce the National Football Conference package of Sunday afternoon games with a focus on America's Game of the Week.
The NFL’s recently signed long-term media deals, valued at more than $113 billion by industry analysts, also included CBS, NBC and ESPN/ABC.
The NFL and Amazon first partnered on Thursday Night Football as part of a tri-cast distribution model during the 2017 season, initially with CBS/NBC and then with Fox starting in 2018.
Amazon said it would will distribute Thursday Night Football across hundreds of compatible digital devices.
“Thursday Night Football will be our first-ever digital package, and we are thrilled to exclusively partner with Amazon to bring our games to more fans on more platforms,” NFL commission Roger Goodell said via the league when the deals were unveiled in March.
“NFL football drives passionate viewers and Amazon will enable us to continue to grow our fan base in innovative and compelling ways.”
The NFL said that with its new media distribution agreements, it has “expanded its digital footprint to reach a broader audience and enhanced the ability of its media partners to innovate around their productions and provide interactive elements such as stats/data, chat and integrated social feeds as part of their digital presentations. 
The remainder of the new agreements will still begin with the 2023 season and run through the 2033 season.
Under the new media rights package, ESPN will pay an average of $2.7 billion per season.
ESPN/ABC also becomes part of the Super Bowl rotation for the first time since Super Bowl XL (2006), with the Big Game scheduled for ESPN/ABC in 2026 (LX) and then 2030 (LXIV).
Fox will average $2.25 billion a year.
CBS will be paying $2.1 billion a year.
NBC will pay $2 billion a year, all according to industry analysts.
NFL Signs $110B+ Media Rights Deal With CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, Amazon
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