# Amazon Prime Video seriously ramping up plus NFL Thursday added



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Amazon is going to put a lot of money into its video service seeking "the crème de la crème" of programming while expanding internationally.

I guess this is part of "the crème de la crème" as on April 5 the NFL announced:

The National Football League announced today it has reached an agreement with Amazon Prime as its exclusive partner to deliver a live OTT digital stream of Thursday Night Football to a global audience across devices during the 2017 NFL season. Amazon Prime Video will stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by NBC and CBS, which will also be simulcast on NFL Network, once again securing the league's "Tri-Cast" model of broadcast (NBC/CBS), cable (NFL Network), and digital (Amazon Prime Video) distribution.

The Thursday Night Football games will be made available to the tens of millions of Amazon Prime members worldwide, on the Amazon Prime Video app for TVs, game consoles, set top boxes and connected devices, which includes Amazon Fire TV, mobile devices and online. The TNF games will also be available to Prime Video members internationally in over 200 countries.​
"We're focused on bringing our customers what they want to watch, Prime members want the NFL," Amazon SVP Jeff Blackburn  told the Wall Street Journal. (Well, not all Prime Members Jeff, such as this one.)

This resulted in a flurry of stories:

Will Amazon Prime Users Actually Watch NFL Games?
Tech Could Soon Take Over All of the Sports You Watch
Here's why Amazon is paying so much more to stream 'Thursday Night Football'
On April 7 we learned that Amazon will spend about $4.5 BILLION on its fight against Netflix this year, according to JPMorgan which includes 1.1% for the $50 million NFL deal.

In December, Amazon made its video service global by entering 200 countries, roughly a year after Netflix made the move. At the same time Amazon has moved to bulk up its offering of original content including paying a reported $320 million for the _Top Gear_ revival.

Per Variety earlier this month Amazon Studios boss Roy Price told the audience at an industry conference that the company's focus was on the "the crème de la crème" of its blockbuster shows.

While the rights and investment can be expensive, Amazon wants to boast the "actual shows people are talking about," he said.

"It's actually efficient and good economics."

The financial commitment is approaching the staggering $6 billion Netflix says it will spend on original content this year. In contrast Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said HBO programming budget will be a "couple of billion dollars."

In any event, as a Prime Subscriber for over a decade, well before Amazon offered video, for me its a free addon and I'm always happy to see more content though I probably won't have enough time to watch most of it.

A billion here, a billion there, it all adds up.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

I read "exclusive" as not available via any other streaming service (NBC, CBS or NFL Sunday Ticket). Which means if you want to "cut the cord" and stream every televised game you will need a Amazon Prime subscription in addition to however you receive other games. A cable/satellite subscription looks pretty good.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Amazon prime is just like Netflix imho. Another premium channel. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it's just not a streaming service that gets you the larger variety of a regular provider.


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## Gloria_Chavez (Aug 11, 2008)

James Long said:


> I read "exclusive" as not available via any other streaming service (NBC, CBS or NFL Sunday Ticket). Which means if you want to "cut the cord" and stream every televised game you will need a Amazon Prime subscription in addition to however you receive other games. A cable/satellite subscription looks pretty good.


If you live in an urban/suburban area, if you are a cord cutter, and even if you do have Amazon Prime, why would you want to watch Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime instead of OTA over an uncompressed signal?


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

Gloria_Chavez said:


> If you live in an urban/suburban area, if you are a cord cutter, and even if you do have Amazon Prime, why would you want to watch Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime instead of OTA over an uncompressed signal?


You wouldn't. The whole "Amazon Prime NFL" storyline is much ado about almost nothing. It only matters if you do not have access to NBC and CBS, and care about the Thursday night (generally crap) games. That is not that many people.


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