It will be impossible for anyone on Amazon’s Prime Video app to miss the Black Friday game later this week.
The Dolphins-Jets game will occupy the top spot in the Prime Video app on the day after Thanksgiving. That allows any viewer with an Amazon account to click on the icon and immediately go to the game feed.
“What I think you’ll see is a broadcast that’s entertaining,” Amazon’s Global Head of Sports Jay Marine said on the podcast I host with Andrew Marchand. “If you’re hardcore football, you’re going to love it. But if you’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to work today, let me just check out this Black Friday game,’ I think you’re going to love it.”
This marks the first time the NFL has scheduled a game on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Amazon, which got its start as an online retailer, picked up the rights to the game and developed sales tactics to sell its wares.
Periodically during the game, viewers will see QR codes offering deals that only are available to viewers of the Black Friday game. The QR codes will appear on-screen, but Marine said they will not appear during plays.
“We’re not going to get in the way of football – you’re there to watch the Dolphins and the Jets and … we would never compromise any of that,” he said. “But we’re going to have fun with the rest of it.”
When Marine says that Amazon’s game production will be fun, he’s referring in part to alternate telecasts, including one from Dude Perfect, which is designed to appeal to younger demos and families. Another alternate telecast will show the All-22 view from above the stadium.
Amazon also is touting a Garth Brooks concert that immediately will follow the game.
“We’re really going to make it an event — that’s the goal,” Marine said. “My No. 1 goal is that people that watch say, ‘Wow, that was awesome. I can’t wait for them to do this every year.’ If that happens, regardless of how much they buy or don’t buy on Black Friday, to me that’s a success.”
