“The NFL has asked media companies to bid on additional seasons of Thursday Night Football, and the league is indicating that if TV networks aren’t interested the package could go to a streaming company like Amazon,” Jon Lafayette reports for Multichannel News. “Sources confirm that the league sent out requests for proposals on Wednesday (Dec. 20), with responses due in January.”
“NBC and CBS split the broadcast portion of the NFL package, with games also airing on the league-owned NFL network. They pay the league a combined $450 million. This season, the games were also streamed by Amazon,” Lafayette reports. “In the RFP the league says it is open to making changes in the package, according to Sports Business Daily.”
“But the RFP also says the league would consider having a digital company such as Amazon taking the entire package. It would be the first time a streaming company took over what had been a broadcast package for a major sport,” Lafayette reports. “If a streamer got the game, it would likely still sell games to local broadcast stations to make sure home team fans got free over-the-air access to games.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Granted, Thursday Night Football has issues from players not wanting to hit the field again so soon after Sunday to poor ratings for bas matchups to over saturation for NFL games, but it still has great value in the right hands. If a streamier were to win the rights, we’d guess it’d be Amazon since they’ve already proven they’re willing to pony up for big league rights.
SEE ALSO:
NFL extends deal to saddle league with Microsoft Surface tablets for 6th year – December 5, 2017
How to watch the NFL games without cable on Apple TV and online – August 23, 2017
Amazon to stream NFL Thursday Night Football games – April 5, 2017
Twitter in talks with Apple to launch Apple TV app for NFL Thursday Night Football live streaming – August 15, 2016
Twitter wins deal to stream NFL Thursday Night Football – April 5, 2016
Apple declines to place bid on NFL Thursday Night Football – March 3, 2016
The Super Bowl that killed cable: NFL streams the big game on Apple TV, no cable or satellite account required – February 4, 2016
Apple, Amazon, Google, Yahoo expected to bid on NFL Thursday Night Football – December 16, 2015
NFL Thursday Night Football rights could be worth a quarter of a trillion to Apple (or Amazon) – December 8, 2015
Apple could make $15 billion from winning the rights to NFL Thursday Night Football – November 27, 2015