What to Expect for Amazon Prime Video’s Exclusive Thursday Night Football

This year marks the beginning of Amazon’s multi-billion dollar 11-year deal with the National Football League, making Prime Video the first streamer to have exclusive rights to an NFL package. Previously, Amazon shared the games with Fox and the NFL Network. Tonight, September 15, 2022, is Prime Video’s first exclusive Thursday Night Football game, and Amazon is pulling out all the stops to give subscribers a memorable season.

From new segments and experiences to X-Ray technology and a dedicated fan store, among other features and perks, here’s everything you need to know about Thursday Night Football (TNF) on Prime Video.

How to Watch Thursday Night Football on Prime Video

The Kansas City Chiefs will face off the Los Angeles Chargers at 8:15 p.m. EST tonight. Subscribers can watch the game via the Prime Video app or web browser.

If you aren’t subscribed to Prime Video, there’s a 30-day free trial, so you can watch up to 4 TNF games for free.

Prime Video is streaming 15 games and there will be 29 NFL teams making an appearance.

For the live-action games, subscribers will get play-by-play commentary from broadcaster Al Michaels. ESPN veteran Kirk Herbstreit is the analyst.

Pregame, halftime and postgame coverage will feature analysts and former NFL players, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Richard Sherman and Tony Gonzalez. Meanwhile, sports anchor Charissa Thompson is the official host of “TNF.”

Prime Video is offering an alternative broadcast game hosted by Dude Perfect, a popular trick-shot comedy group. Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer, the all-woman broadcast team, will continue broadcasting TNF games for Prime Video.

The streaming service has also recorded a new Thursday Night Football theme song to further hype up the event. Amazon claims Pinar Toprak is the first-ever woman to compose an original score for an NFL media package.

2022 Thursday Night Football Schedule on Prime Video

Pregame coverage begins at 7 p.m. EST and live games begin at 8:15 p.m. EST.

• Week 2 (September 15): Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs
• Week 3 (September 22): Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns
• Week 4 (September 29): Miami Dolphins at Cincinnati Bengals
• Week 5 (October 6): Indianapolis Colts at Denver Broncos
• Week 6 (October 13): Washington Commanders at Chicago Bears
• Week 7 (October 20): New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals
• Week 8 (October 27): Baltimore Ravens at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Week 9 (November 3): Philadelphia Eagles at Houston Texans
• Week 10 (November 10): Atlanta Falcons at Carolina Panthers
• Week 11 (November 17): Tennessee Titans at Green Bay Packers
• Week 13 (December 1): Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots
• Week 14 (December 8): Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Rams
• Week 15 (December 15): San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks
• Week 16 (December 22): Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets
• Week 17 (December 29): Dallas Cowboys at Tennessee Titans 

We are technically in Week 2, as the first week– a.k.a the kickoff game– debuted on NBC. NBC also has the rights to Thanksgiving night coverage, on November 24.

It’s important to note there won’t be a Thursday night game during Week 18, January 5, 2023, because games are scheduled exclusively on the weekends only.

Special Features and Perks

To promote the NFL games, Amazon Fire TV and Alexa are bringing new features to NFL fans. For instance, voice capabilities with Alexa and X-Ray on Fire TVs give fans real-time access to live statistics and data.

Football fans can say, “Alexa, open X-Ray” to find stats about the game. The X-Ray feature offers information about content, such as trivia and background. While it used to only be available with a TV remote control, now viewers can use voice assistant Alexa to learn all they want to know about Thursday Night Football.

Fans can ask, “Alexa, play Thursday Night Football” or “Alexa, how many tackles are there?” The voice assistant will answer you without interrupting the game.

You can also ask Alexa to follow your favorite football team, which was a feature previously only available for Major League Baseball teams.

Thursday Night Football can be recorded so fans never miss a game. Users can head to the new dedicated sports tab to find games and select the record button.

Football fans can also tell Alexa, “add Thursday Night Football to my watchlist,” and all games for the season will be added and automatically recorded. Once recorded, games are available to be replayed until 2023.

Prime members are also getting deals and VIP experiences throughout the season.

Over 150 members who added TNF to their Prime Video Watchlist were awarded the chance to win reserved seating and meet-and-greets with retired players. Similarly, more than 250 Prime members were invited to attend an interactive viewing party in Los Angeles that will feature oversized LED screens enabled with X-Ray and NFL Next Gen Stats powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as commentary by former NFL players.

Also, Amazon is providing a dedicated fan store page TNF Central, which offers TNF-related products, NFL-branded merchandise, and of course, Amazon devices. Prime members will get exclusive deals on items like replica player jerseys, licensed apparel and hats, home entertainment and more.

Partnerships and Sponsors

Last month, Amazon struck a three-year deal with Nielsen to include the streaming service and Thursday Night Football in Nielsen’s National TV measurement service.

Amazon Prime Video and DirecTV’s new partnership is allowing business owners to stream Thursday Night Football across 300,000+ sports bars, restaurants, retail stores, hotel lounges, casinos, sports books and other venues across the United States.

DraftKings is Amazon’s new exclusive pregame odds provider for Thursday Night Football.

There’s a lot at stake for Amazon, the tech and streaming giant with over 200 million paying members worldwide. Tonight’s Thursday Night Football debut will be a historic event as major sports rights packages move from traditional TV over to the streaming arena.

Of course, everyone will also be crossing their fingers in hopes that the Prime Video app doesn’t crash. Last weekend, DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket website and app suffered outages, along with Sling TV, YouTube TV, and the new NFL+ streaming service.

What to Expect for Amazon Prime Video’s Exclusive Thursday Night Football by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

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