While watching regular NFL football games during the season, most of us watch the games through channels like Fox, NBC, and ABC. Traditional television networks have been the NFL’s main go to when broadcasting regular season games. However, things have started to change with the NFL signing deals with streaming services putting some of the television networks at risk. Amazon is one of the main streaming companies that wants exclusive rights to producing of the NFL’s Thursday night games starting in 2023. The NFL is asking up to $1 billion per season for this potential deal. “Amazon has held streaming rights for Thursday Night Football since 2017 for a fee of $75 million per season” (Fox). According to anonymous workers at Amazon, “Amazon will not pay anywhere near $1 billion for a full package of games that aren’t entirely exclusive…” (CNBC). However, Amazon is open to a smaller package. This potential deal would eliminate the availability of watching NFL games on traditional television except for those local television channels with their team playing. Even though this deal looks very adequate for the NFL, the NFL has been cautious with handing broadcasting rights to streaming services (CNBC.com). They are currently in the talks with other television networks for Monday and Sunday night games. Regardless of how the Amazon deal works out, the future of live sports viewing will be significantly different going forward.
