The NFL faced a great deal of backlash for giving a streaming platform exclusive rights to a playoff game this year, but they are getting a record amount of money to do the same again next season.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock service last month had the exclusive rights to the AFC Wild Card game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs. Though the arrangement was not a popular one, the NFL will stream another game during next year’s playoffs — this time on Prime Video.
According to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Amazon is paying an estimated $120 million for the exclusive rights to one of next year’s playoff games. That is a record price for a single NFL game and more than the $110 million NBC paid for their Wild Card game this year. It also surpasses the $100 million Amazon paid for the exclusive rights to the first ever Black Friday game back in November.
Peacock’s playoff game this year drew an average audience of 23 million viewers, making it the most-watched live stream in U.S. history. That was even more than the 21.8 million viewers that watched last year’s Wild Card playoff game on NBC’s television broadcast network.
Prime Video drew 9.61 million viewers for its Black Friday broadcast, according to McCarthy. That may be why Amazon was outbid by NBC for the Wild Card game, but the tech giant was not about to let that happen again.
Amazon already has the exclusive rights to the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” package, so they have a good chance at breaking Peacock’s viewership record depending on which teams play in their Wild Card game. We may hear some of the same complaints we heard last month, but NFL fans should be more familiar with the platform than they were with Peacock.
