Amazon kicks off its package of 11 "TNF" streams tonight with Bears-Packers, and it could "mark just the earliest days of deep-pocketed technology giants pursuing the TV rights to league deals that for years have served as the glue that holds together the TV bundle," according to Todd Spangler of VARIETY. The games will be "available to Prime Video members in more than 200 countries and territories -- a global reach that Amazon execs say was critical for the NFL." Amazon Head of Sports Jim DeLorenzo said, "There aren’t many companies that can deliver a worldwide live event like this." The "key objective" of Amazon's NFL deal is to "drive new subscribers to the Amazon Prime membership program." Spangler noted Amazon is reportedly paying $50M for the “TNF” rights, which would be "five times what Twitter paid last year." However, sources said that the figure is "actually much lower." Even at the high end, "consider that 500,000 new Prime subscribers, paying $99 annually," would offset the reported $50M price tag for NFL rights. That "doesn’t even include sales of advertising for the games or purchases by Prime members, who spend more on products and services than non-Prime users." Amazon is "able to take advantage of its existing video-delivery infrastructure, including apps for connected TVs, game consoles and set-top boxes including Amazon Fire TV" (VARIETY.com, 9/26).
LOOKING AHEAD: The AP's Josh Dubow reported the NFL's '18 "TNF" package will "soon be up for bid." There could be "substantial interest" from companies like Twitter, Amazon and "potentially other tech behemoths like Google, Apple or Facebook." NFL Exec VP/Media Hans Schroeder said, "There will be real interest by digital-first companies and digital-first platforms in distributing NFL games on an exclusive basis and more broadly [than] on the single-game experience we've done in the past." The streams on Twitter "drew an average audience of about 265,800 viewers per minute, a small fraction of the audience for those games on traditional television." Dubow noted Schroeder "sees growth potential" as about 3 million per week "tuned in for parts of games last year," and about 80% of the audience was 34 or younger. In Amazon's favor, viewers are "used to watching longer shows on Prime than they are on Twitter, and they can get it on their TV apps, game consoles and other devices, as well as tablets and mobile phones" (AP, 9/27).
COMPARE & CONTRAST: RECODE's Kurt Wagner notes there will be "comparisons to the streaming partnership the NFL had with Twitter last year," and it will be "challenging for Amazon to beat Twitter's modest numbers." Twitter streamed the games "for free to anyone online ... which meant the games were available to (virtually) everyone around the world." But in Amazon’s case, the games are "only available to the company’s estimated 85 million Prime subscribers." Amazon and the NFL’s argument is that Prime subscribers are "much more engaged than random NFL watchers/samplers." Going forward, the NFL is "using these Thursday night streams to test different distribution models to see what works -- and to prove to potential bidders that digital streams are worth paying for" (RECODE.net, 9/28). Aegis Capital Analyst Victor Anthony said tonight’s stream is not “meaningful” for Amazon, “it’s just part of the overall content strategy that Amazon is pushing” trying to get “more traction into the home.” MKM Partners Analyst Rob Sanderson said the Twitter feeds last year "were beautiful, and from an infrastructure capabilities perspective Amazon is every bit as good as Twitter, if not much better because of their assets in the cloud.” Sanderson said Amazon’s ad strategy is more “consequential” because what they are "really doing here and testing here is a way to attach attribution to the linear ads and show correlation between brands marketing in these types of events to whether they actually generate sales" ("Squawk on the Street," CNBC, 9/28).
GEARING UP FOR TONIGHT: Amazon will produce a pregame show for its home page before it streams Bears-Packers. Hosted by former NFLer Tiki Barber and Australian chef Curtis Stone, the show will attempt to peddle NFL merchandise customers can buy from Amazon -- from serving trays and glasses to grilling tools and jerseys. Amazon also announced the names of the commentators who will work the service’s alternate feeds during the game. The U.K. English feed will include Ross Dyer on play-by-play for the first three games and Derek Rae for the final six games. Tommy Smyth will be the analyst. Meanwhile, the Spanish feed will feature Amando Quintero on play-by-play and Oscar Benitez as analyst; and the Brazilian Portuguese feed will have Flavio Pereira on play-by-play with Nilton Batata as analyst (John Ourand, Staff Writer).
