Last year, we were able to watch Thursday Night Football online as the NFL had a $10 million deal with Twitter to livestream the event. This upcoming season won’t be on Twitter, because another internet giant has purchased the rights, per Recode (SB Nation and Recode are both part of Vox Media).
“Amazon has bought the rights to the league’s streaming package, and will offer the games for free to its Amazon Prime subscribers around the world,” per Peter Kafka of Recode. “Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube had also expressed interest in carrying the games this year. Amazon is paying around $50 million for the 10 games it will show next fall, according to a person familiar with the deal.”
I actually enjoyed being able to watch football on Twitter last season because I was able to pick up my phone to check if the game was actually any good, and it was easy to watch the final couple minutes. Amazon will be providing the games to their Amazon Prime subscribers.
The games will still be broadcast on CBS and NBC.
The Patriots are likely to have a pair of Thursday Night games, just like in 2015. The season opener will be on a Thursday, while there will likely be a divisional game later in the season. While the season opener most likely won’t be available on Amazon, the later game likely will.
Last year’s week three game between the Patriots and Texans was available on Twitter.
Poll
Would you stream a Patriots game if it was on Amazon Prime?
This poll is closed
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59%
Yes
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9%
No
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30%
I don’t have Amazon Prime