Amazon and the National Football League announced today that Prime Video will exclusively stream a newly scheduled “Black Friday” game in 2023 on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day. The first-ever NFL Black Friday game will take place on Friday, November 24, 2023 with an expected kickoff at 3 p.m. ET. The participating teams will be announced when the schedule for 2023 is announced.
“Thanksgiving is synonymous with football and we are excited to give our fans another day of NFL action this holiday weekend,” said Hans Schroeder, Chief Operating Officer of NFL Media. “Amazon is in a unique position to partner with us on this game, as Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year for their business.”
“Thursday Night Football has already proved hugely successful on Prime Video, bringing in 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 are excited to kick it off with a gift to football fans across the country with this new game.”
“We’re thrilled with the support from the NFL and the incredible response we’ve had from viewers to our broadcast, and we’re excited 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.
During the first five games of its first season on Prime Video, Thursday Night Football averaged 10.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, and is a +48% increase from the first five TNF games in 2021 among viewers in the United States. the hard-to-reach adult 18-34 demographic, and up to +25% in adults 18-49.
The NFL is the most valuable content in the sports and entertainment landscape, with NFL games making up all 34 most-watched television shows as of early September. In Week 5 of the 2022 regular season, NFL games average 16.8 million viewers per game.
The NFL and Amazon first teamed up 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 Prime Video acquired the rights to be the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football in the NFL’s first-ever all-digital package.
Prime Video is the first streaming service to broadcast a season-long exclusive national broadcast package with the NFL, featuring new pregame, halftime and postgame shows, as well as fan favorite interactive features such as X-Ray and Next Gen Stats powered by AWS. Viewers can stream from the web at amazon.com or using the Prime Video app, which is available on phones, tablets, set-top boxes, game consoles, smart TVs, and NFL+ enabled phones and tablets. Every Thursday night football game is also streamed live on Twitch and is available on over-the-air TV stations in the competing teams’ two home markets, as well as in Spanish language on Prime Video. Thursday Night Football’s broadcast team includes legendary play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and five-time Emmy-winning analyst Kirk Herbstreit on the stand, with award-winning reporter Kaylee Hartung on the sidelines.
For the latest information on 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.