# Amazon confident Prime Video can handle Thursday Night Football traffic



## glrush

Amazon confident Prime Video can handle NFL traffic (awfulannouncing.com)


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## joshjr

We'll see. Not to be Debbie Downer here but I have yet to stream a game in the last 4 years that didnt have issues. No matter if it was a London game, Yahoo, Amazon or other. They all had issues and were not ready for this yet. I have hope Amazon is ready with them carry so many games this season but we shall see.


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## compnurd

joshjr said:


> We'll see. Not to be Debbie Downer here but I have yet to stream a game in the last 4 years that didnt have issues. No matter if it was a London game, Yahoo, Amazon or other. They all had issues and were not ready for this yet. I have hope Amazon is ready with them carry so many games this season but we shall see.


I stream games all day and night long.. Zero issues


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## Mike Lang

Amazon is confident about a lot of things that don't always pan out for them.


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## joshjr

compnurd said:


> I stream games all day and night long.. Zero issues


Its a little different when its a game that streaming it is the only avenue. I am hoping it does go issue free but that has never been the case for any of these specific games I am talking about.


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## SamC

Streaming is just not ready for prime time. Sure, it’s OK for what it is for, a nice supplement to linear TV where ON DEMAND things can be shown. But to have millions of different connections to a live sports event, which is how streaming works, just won’t work. Sure they can toss something 99% of people are watching on a network on streaming too. Not the same

They already had to supply the commercial market via DirecTV (at no charge, thus at no profit) and it is very likely that this will fail so totally that the games will be on NFLN or on DirecTV for homes by October. The NFL won’t put up with the bad publicity.


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## joshjr

SamC said:


> Streaming is just not ready for prime time. Sure, it’s OK for what it is for, a nice supplement to linear TV where ON DEMAND things can be shown. But to have millions of different connections to a live sports event, which is how streaming works, just won’t work. Sure they can toss something 99% of people are watching on a network on streaming too. Not the same
> 
> They already had to supply the commercial market via DirecTV (at no charge, thus at no profit) and it is very likely that this will fail so totally that the games will be on NFLN or on DirecTV for homes by October. The NFL won’t put up with the bad publicity.


While I dont hope for failure for Amazon, I do hope that if it does have issues like they always have in the past 4 years that the NFL is ready to step in and make sure we have a viable option to watch the games. I would think that just a big money contract isnt enough if it makes their product value go down over time. If the streaming goes off fine and no issues, that is fine. I just have my doubts and if Amazon cant handle a single game, it gives me no hope that any company can handle the streaming of all the games for Sunday Ticket next season.


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## compnurd

SamC said:


> Streaming is just not ready for prime time. Sure, it’s OK for what it is for, a nice supplement to linear TV where ON DEMAND things can be shown. But to have millions of different connections to a live sports event, which is how streaming works, just won’t work. Sure they can toss something 99% of people are watching on a network on streaming too. Not the same
> 
> They already had to supply the commercial market via DirecTV (at no charge, thus at no profit) and it is very likely that this will fail so totally that the games will be on NFLN or on DirecTV for homes by October. The NFL won’t put up with the bad publicity.


Millions of different connections happen to sporting events every day of the week.. ESPN+, MLB.tv and the host of other apps do this day in and day out. 10's of millions of people upgraded there phones to iOS16 yesterday and the internet didnt blink..


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## compnurd

joshjr said:


> Its a little different when its a game that streaming it is the only avenue. I am hoping it does go issue free but that has never been the case for any of these specific games I am talking about.


The traffic for the games will be a drop in the bucket to the bandwidth Amazon churns out from people watching video from Prime Video


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## harsh

compnurd said:


> The traffic for the games will be a drop in the bucket to the bandwidth Amazon churns out from people watching video from Prime Video


The same surely can't be said for Apple and their "boutique" streaming service.


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## mjwagner

compnurd said:


> I stream games all day and night long.. Zero issues


Same here. I’ve been streaming only for years now after 20+ years with D, first with PSVue when I first made the switch to streaming and with YTTV since PSVue closed shop. I can think of only a few times when I experienced any issue with popular live events, sports and others, or anything for that matter. In my area with weather issues, streaming has been less of an issue than D. But of course that is just my experience.


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## harsh

I've streamed portions of a few of the Amazon Prime sports events and while I wasn't impressed early on (lacking in contrast), the more recent games are much better. It is good to see a company that makes improvements rather than excuses.


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## James Long

joshjr said:


> Its a little different when its a game that streaming it is the only avenue. I am hoping it does go issue free but that has never been the case for any of these specific games I am talking about.


It would be interesting to know how many people tried to stream the games you are complaining about. NFL Sunday Ticket is not the only way people watch the Sunday games. Most viewers of those games are watching via their local TV affiliates. Only a couple million people subscribe to Sunday Ticket ... and based on the survey earlier this year many people don't know if they subscribe to NFL ST or not.

I hope next year's streamer beats DIRECTV's subscriber numbers and actual viewership. They will need to do so if it will be a financial success.


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## harsh

James Long said:


> They will need to do so if it will be a financial success.


Or they'll start low and double their prices as has been the slow march of other streaming services.


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## SamC

ST cannot make money. It is a loss leader for DirecTV, and will be one for whoever has it next. Buying it will require first buying something else, just like DirecTV. And there is really no doubt that, just like TNF, they will have to farm out the commercial side to DirecTV. 

As to TNF, there will be huge problems. A handful of people watching a melodrama on demand, which is what 90% of streaming is, and a large number of people watching a live event, are two different things.


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## harsh

SamC said:


> ST cannot make money.


I think it can but it can't be hobbled by needing a not-universally-available MVPD subscription as was demanded by DIRECTV.


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## SamC

harsh said:


> I think it can but it can't be hobbled by needing a not-universally-available MVPD subscription as was demanded by DIRECTV.


If you look at the ratings for the “free” games you would need a buy rate of something like 35% of those people for ST to break even at what DirecTV pays. They got about 2M people, which is less than a 10% buy rate. Since the NFL wants yet more money the needed buy rate goes up too. 

The idea that 40 or 50% of the people who watch football now will buy ST is just not realistic.


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## b4pjoe

SamC said:


> If you look at the ratings for the “free” games you would need a buy rate of something like 35% of those people for ST to break even at what DirecTV pays. They got about 2M people, which is less than a 10% buy rate. Since the NFL wants yet more money the needed buy rate goes up too.
> 
> The idea that 40 or 50% of the people who watch football now will buy ST is just not realistic.


40 or 50% of people who watch football will now at least having the opportunity to buy it. That wasn't the case before.


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## harsh

SamC said:


> If you look at the ratings for the “free” games you would need a buy rate of something like 35% of those people for ST to break even at what DirecTV pays. They got about 2M people, which is less than a 10% buy rate. Since the NFL wants yet more money the needed buy rate goes up too.


NFLST carries a relatively large number of contests (along with the bonus features) versus the "free" version's single game offering. As such, it isn't reasonable to compare the numbers straight across or even by a linear factor.


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## tjpsnj

glrush said:


> Amazon confident Prime Video can handle NFL traffic (awfulannouncing.com)


AZ not ready. 
Problem one:
Cannot fast forward or skip the commercials.
Problem Two:
Often the game buffers. Never did a commercial buffer. Hmmmm
Problem three:
The commentators are worse than on the NFL Network. Real Bummer.
Will have to miss the Thursday Night Games.


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## slickpete

ST is a loss because they choose to charge crazy high price for it. they could have charged less and had more people as well.

I find streaming to be an awful experience compared to cable/sat viewing sports is even worse.. the abilty to change channels when streaming is god awful and stopping starting rewinding on streaming apps is a poor experience on almost all of them


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## joshjr

compnurd said:


> The traffic for the games will be a drop in the bucket to the bandwidth Amazon churns out from people watching video from Prime Video


That is because those 2 things are not the same thing. I work for an ISP. We have a Netflix server here that houses 80 TB of the most watched content so that the internet traffic can stay here and not have to go all the way back to Netflix. That is for content already stored (same as Prime would be) but NOT for a live game that is going on.


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## joshjr

tjpsnj said:


> AZ not ready.
> Problem one:
> Cannot fast forward or skip the commercials.
> Problem Two:
> Often the game buffers. Never did a commercial buffer. Hmmmm
> Problem three:
> The commentators are worse than on the NFL Network. Real Bummer.
> Will have to miss the Thursday Night Games.


I am not defending Amazon here but you cant fast forward or skip commercials on live TV.


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## compnurd

joshjr said:


> That is because those 2 things are not the same thing. I work for an ISP. We have a Netflix server here that houses 80 TB of the most watched content so that the internet traffic can stay here and not have to go all the way back to Netflix. That is for content already stored (same as Prime would be) but NOT for a live game that is going on.


I am well aware of how a CDN works. But again the traffic for this game will be nothing compared to daily traffic I would be shocked if even 4-5 million people watch it


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## TJNash

tjpsnj said:


> AZ not ready.
> Problem one:
> Cannot fast forward or skip the commercials.
> Problem Two:
> Often the game buffers. Never did a commercial buffer. Hmmmm
> Problem three:
> The commentators are worse than on the NFL Network. Real Bummer.
> Will have to miss the Thursday Night Games.


You do realize Al Michaels is calling the TNF games, right?


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## Andy22

Man I am just laughing reading these posts about streaming not being ready. I have been streaming yttv for the last two years and there is never buffering. Not only that the 4K is eye watering. I mean there’s not a ton of 4K content but baseball/college football games look amazing in 4K and also never buffer. I’m thinking some of you need to upgrade your internet.


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## ttubbiola

TJNash said:


> You do realize Al Michaels is calling the TNF games, right?


I was just about to post that. Amazon did the smart thing and gave Al a huge bag of money to gain immediate legitimacy and prestige. He is the best at what he does. The only thing better would have been to pair him up with Romo As the announcer team.


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## housemr

Does anyone know what sort of catch up feature will be available for TNF? I wont get home until after the game starts but normally i could DVR the game, ff through commericals/halftime and be caught up by the 4th quarter. It would be a major downgrade to not have this option.


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## b4pjoe

You can go there right now and set it to record. Then you can FF through it later. The FF works better if you are on an Amazon streaming device.


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## housemr

b4pjoe said:


> You can go there right now and set it to record. Then you can FF through it later. The FF works better if you are on an Amazon streaming device.


Appreciate it


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## rownay

Just upgrade your internet from dial up and you guys will be good to go.


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## gully_foyle

SInce Amazon Web Services is pretty much "the Internet" in the USA, I don't see how this can fail. They have servers everywhere and CABLES of fiber. DirecTV doesn't have nearly as much bandwidth as Amazon does.


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## AngryManMLS

gully_foyle said:


> Since Amazon Web Services is pretty much "the Internet" in the USA, I don't see how this can fail. They have servers everywhere and CABLES of fiber. DirecTV doesn't have nearly as much bandwidth as Amazon does.


People tend to not realize how much of the Internet relies on AWS especially when it comes to streaming video services. I guarantee you that most people who are hyper ventilating over their perceived notion of Amazon lacking experience in live sports streaming probably already has used another service that uses AWS for live sports streaming. Either that or they still keep bringing up that failed attempt Yahoo had with that Bills vs Jags London game in 2015 and thinks that streaming is still just like that.


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## SamC

gully_foyle said:


> DirecTV doesn't have nearly as much bandwidth as Amazon does.


That is a basic misunderstanding of how DBS TV and streaming work.

Think of DBS, and for that matter OTA TV, as rain. DBS just sends out a single signal for the entire country. It doesn’t really matter how many people are watching just like its the same amount of rain falling no matter how many people put out buckets to catch some. So a game on DBS, or OTA, is ONE signal.

But think of streaming as a city water works, and beyond that, a really poorly designed city water works, where each home needs its own pipe from the reservoir. That is what streaming of live events is. Each viewer needs his own connection from Amazon’s server to him, just for him. So a game on streaming is, if the ratings from last year stay the same, SIX MILLION signals.

Which is why streaming if just fine for on-demand shows which not that many people want to watch at any one time, but not for live sports.


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## B. Shoe

I'm just one guy in a small, rural part of a big, vast world. I've lived without satellite/cable for the past four years and watch TV only through streaming. And we watch a lot, and I mean a LOT of live sports through various sources; YouTube TV, Apple TV+, DAZN, ESPN+, NFL Sunday Ticket streaming app, NBA app, MLB.tv, Bally Sports App, Peacock, Paramount+...you name it, I've given it a shot. If we're home in the evening, there's likely a game on through some avenue. I say this in all sincerity where I can't recall a time that I've had a significant issue. And so can lots of other people. 

I'm optimistic for Amazon's success with this. And if it somehow has hiccups or issues, they'll work to get it resolved. The Internet can do lots of amazing things on a daily, minute-by-minute basis; make video calls, online gaming, conference meetings...so many things. But for some reason, people on this board seem to think that streaming a ballgame just can't be something done successfully.


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## b4pjoe

SamC said:


> That is a basic misunderstanding of how DBS TV and streaming work.
> 
> Think of DBS, and for that matter OTA TV, as rain. DBS just sends out a single signal for the entire country. It doesn’t really matter how many people are watching just like its the same amount of rain falling no matter how many people put out buckets to catch some. So a game on DBS, or OTA, is ONE signal.
> 
> But think of streaming as a city water works, and beyond that, a really poorly designed city water works, where each home needs its own pipe from the reservoir. That is what streaming of live events is. Each viewer needs his own connection from Amazon’s server to him, just for him. So a game on streaming is, if the ratings from last year stay the same, SIX MILLION signals.
> 
> Which is why streaming if just fine for on-demand shows which not that many people want to watch at any one time, but not for live sports.


Well that isn't how water supply or the internet works but keep on believin'...


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## compnurd

SamC said:


> That is a basic misunderstanding of how DBS TV and streaming work.
> 
> Think of DBS, and for that matter OTA TV, as rain. DBS just sends out a single signal for the entire country. It doesn’t really matter how many people are watching just like its the same amount of rain falling no matter how many people put out buckets to catch some. So a game on DBS, or OTA, is ONE signal.
> 
> But think of streaming as a city water works, and beyond that, a really poorly designed city water works, where each home needs its own pipe from the reservoir. That is what streaming of live events is. Each viewer needs his own connection from Amazon’s server to him, just for him. So a game on streaming is, if the ratings from last year stay the same, SIX MILLION signals.
> 
> Which is why streaming if just fine for on-demand shows which not that many people want to watch at any one time, but not for live sports.


Wow lol


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## AngryManMLS

B. Shoe said:


> But for some reason, people on this board seem to think that streaming a ballgame just can't be something done successfully.


Go look at Twitter right now. Between people upset over tonight's game being paywalled* and people expecting tons of freezing/pausing/buffering trust me the thought of "can't be something done successfully" exists far beyond these forums.

*By their logic of paywalled then MNF on ESPN should also be considered paywalled too since you have to pay to access it.


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## compnurd

AngryManMLS said:


> Go look at Twitter right now. Between people upset over tonight's game being paywalled* and people expecting tons of freezing/pausing/buffering trust me the thought of "can't be something done successfully" exists far beyond these forums.
> 
> *By their logic of paywalled then MNF on ESPN should also be considered paywalled too since you have to pay to access it.


And the NFL has there billions of dollars already


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## AngryManMLS

compnurd said:


> And the NFL has there billions of dollars already


Don't tell that to all the people saying the NFL is going "broke" due to "woke" or whatever the current trendy dumb rallying cry they are now using.


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## b4pjoe

Most of the ones on this forum whining over streaming are fine if it rains and knocks out their satellite for an hour but if streaming buffers for a tenth of a second the world is coming to an end.


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## compnurd

AngryManMLS said:


> Don't tell that to all the people saying the NFL is going "broke" due to "woke" or whatever the current trendy dumb rallying cry they are now using.


Seems to be


b4pjoe said:


> Most of the ones on this forum whining over streaming are fine if it rains and knocks out their satellite for an hour but if streaming buffers for a tenth of a second the world is coming to an end.


I’m going to stream the game on nine TVs tonight just because


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## b4pjoe

compnurd said:


> I’m going to stream the game on nine TVs tonight just because


Well we will at least know who is causing the problems. I'm sure 9 streams will put them over the limit. 🤣


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## compnurd

b4pjoe said:


> Well we will at least know who is causing the problems. I'm sure 9 streams will put them over the limit. 🤣


That ninth one will take down the internet!!


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## raott

compnurd said:


> Seems to be
> 
> I’m going to stream the game on nine TVs tonight just because


I have two going myself....about to fire up two more.


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## ttubbiola

Fired up the Apple TV and so far the audio is subpar. Al Michaels didn’t sound that great in the quick hit he did to open the broadcast.

They have the field mics up too high and the announcers are low.


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## ttubbiola

Other note, picture looks awesome on my new Sony A95. 🙂


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## raott

Pic looks amazing. Not crazy about the sound mix at all. Very flat....very centered. It doesn't feel around me at all. But.....the internets didn't crash as some here predicted. I guess Amazon was right. Wonder if some will comment further in this thread.


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## bflosue

I live in KC so tonight's game is also on local TV. Compared to an OTA antenna, Amazon is about 35 seconds behind. But no buffering issues or pixelating or anything so far (I have 1GB Google fiber).


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## Bender The Lab

ttubbiola said:


> Other note, picture looks awesome on my new Sony A95. 🙂


Same for my Z9K, hard to believe it is just 1080P, looks better then the fake 4K from Fox.


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## compnurd

Bender The Lab said:


> Same for my Z9K, hard to believe it is just 1080P, looks better then the fake 4K from Fox.


It’s probably way higher bit rate


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## b4pjoe

Watching on my Amazon Cube instead of Apple TV as you get more features using the Amazon hardware. Looks great and the sound sounds good to me. No buffering.


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## ttubbiola

bflosue said:


> I live in KC so tonight's game is also on local TV. Compared to an OTA antenna, Amazon is about 35 seconds behind. But no buffering issues or pixelating or anything so far (I have 1GB Google fiber).


I’m in SoCal and am also getting the game on Fox. For me, Fox is behind by about the same 35 seconds. Weird.


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## ttubbiola

Streaming picture is definitely better than Fox over DTV.


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## AngryManMLS

b4pjoe said:


> Watching on my Amazon Cube instead of Apple TV as you get more features using the Amazon hardware. Looks great and the sound sounds good to me. No buffering.


How is the sound quality on Amazon hardware? Is it stereo or surround sound?


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## b4pjoe

Sound options are Stereo or Dolby Digital Plus


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## b4pjoe

Also on the Amazon Cube when you start the game in progress you get the option to go LIVE or RESUME.


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## compnurd

b4pjoe said:


> Also on the Amazon Cube when you start the game in progress you get the option to go LIVE or RESUME.


How are you doing all of this posting? The internet crashed 2 hours ago


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## b4pjoe

compnurd said:


> How are you doing all of this posting? The internet crashed 2 hours ago


When it goes out for everyone else mine gets better!


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## ttubbiola

b4pjoe said:


> When it goes out for everyone else mine gets better!


Plugged directly into a backbone switch? 😉


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## TwoMuch

Tried watching tonight's game with Dish's Prime channel, always blurring and pixelating 95% of the time. This with a hardwired network cable direct from the Hopper 3 to the switch and a 4K Joey.

An Amazon Firestick 4k Max stick had no such issues, the only issue was the picture looked like the contrast was cranked a bit too high. Whites too bright and the darks too dark. This was on a professional calibrated OLED that we have never had a picture issue with over five different HDMi inputs.


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## compnurd

TwoMuch said:


> Tried watching tonight's game with Dish's Prime channel, always blurring and pixelating 95% of the time. This with a hardwired network cable direct from the Hopper 3 to the switch and a 4K Joey.
> 
> An Amazon Firestick 4k Max stick had no such issues, the only issue was the picture looked like the contrast was cranked a bit too high. Whites too bright and the darks too dark. This was on a professional calibrated OLED that we have never had a picture issue with over five different HDMi inputs.


Sounds like you need that input recalibrated


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## joshjr

k, I watched the game. I only had 2 audio dropouts and 1 time the audio was behind the action for a short period of time. It was noticeable as Al Michaels said he over threw someone before the ball was even thrown and then sure enough. I was live but it seemed to fix itself pretty quickly. So overall, I was happy with the stream and would say it was a success. However, I did see some of my friends in the same town and in neighboring states that were all having lots of issues. Those all could of been tired to their ISP though. But for me, Amazon gets a thumps up for it at least working. I didnt like the cartoon crap at the beginning of the broadcast. You could tell it was on Amazon, most of the commercials were about their products. 

I work for an ISP and got word last night that a customer stated they were planning to leave us since we didn't carry the Chiefs game. Since KC does not have another game on Amazon, he would probably think he made the right decision. All this technology over the last 5-10 years had been hard on a lot of the older generation.


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## compnurd

joshjr said:


> k, I watched the game. I only had 2 audio dropouts and 1 time the audio was behind the action for a short period of time. It was noticeable as Al Michaels said he over threw someone before the ball was even thrown and then sure enough. I was live but it seemed to fix itself pretty quickly. So overall, I was happy with the stream and would say it was a success. However, I did see some of my friends in the same town and in neighboring states that were all having lots of issues. Those all could of been tired to their ISP though. But for me, Amazon gets a thumps up for it at least working. I didnt like the cartoon crap at the beginning of the broadcast. You could tell it was on Amazon, most of the commercials were about their products.
> 
> I work for an ISP and got word last night that a customer stated they were planning to leave us since we didn't carry the Chiefs game. Since KC does not have another game on Amazon, he would probably think he made the right decision. All this technology over the last 5-10 years had been hard on a lot of the older generation.


And the thing is these same dropouts or glitches happen on linear systems everyday. Directv has had plenty of audio and video glitches for all sorts of live broadcasts


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## b4pjoe

joshjr said:


> All this technology over the last 5-10 years had been hard on a lot of the older generation.


That's BS. I am "the older generation" and have no issues keeping up with technology. It isn't "the older generation". It is stubborn people who hate change. Both young and old.


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## MCHuf

Picture looked great last night. 1080p with high bitrate is fantastic. I miss the great PQ from the early days of digital HD ota signals, before they were diluted for sub-channels.


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## glrush

I streamed the game on three 4K capable TV's last night and the game was visually gorgeous. No glitches at all on the video. 

The sound from the crowd seemed muffled though. I have been to Arrowhead, and it is really loud for a Chief's game and that did not come thru, at least for me.

Overall tho, well done by Amazon. I'm sure there will be tweaks going forward but for their first regular season game, it worked well for me.


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## bjlc

Guess what ..they were wrong..


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## compnurd

bjlc said:


> Guess what ..they were wrong..


uhhhhhh


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## James Long

TwoMuch said:


> Tried watching tonight's game with Dish's Prime channel, always blurring and pixelating 95% of the time. This with a hardwired network cable direct from the Hopper 3 to the switch and a 4K Joey.


Watching on the 4K Joey with the Internet running through the Hopper 3? Coax cable between the Joey and Hopper 3?


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## B. Shoe

AngryManMLS said:


> Go look at Twitter right now. Between people upset over tonight's game being paywalled* and people expecting tons of freezing/pausing/buffering trust me the thought of "can't be something done successfully" exists far beyond these forums.
> 
> *By their logic of paywalled then MNF on ESPN should also be considered paywalled too since you have to pay to access it.


I tried my best to avoid getting on the Bird app last night. I figured I'd best give back any precious bandwidth that I might be sucking up to the busted Internet water pipes for @compnurd and @raott to have their 17 concurrent streams of the game running in their homes. 🤓 

I'm at the point where if someone wants to talk features to include in the future for streaming sports, I think that's fair fodder for discussion. There are things I'd like to see these services and broadcasts include in the future, too (see my thread on NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL+ services). Some of those things are good to hope for, but the lack thereof in the present doesn't make streaming an absolute failure. (Like, how much are you really using that rewind feature during a live broadcast?) I just can't anymore with the slippery slopes and generalities about streaming and references to streaming failures from seven years ago that keep getting tossed out here. It's becoming white noise to me and I just file past it.


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## Mike Lang

I didn't watch but my son did and he said there were several dropouts and glitches in the game.


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## b4pjoe

Mike Lang said:


> I didn't watch but my son did and he said there were several dropouts and glitches in the game.


There were none from Amazon. I watched the pregame, game, and postgame with no droputs at all. Amazon can only control their own production. What happens between the Amazon base and the users watching it is beyond Amazon's control. Must have been form his ISP. He should complain to them about it.


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## compnurd

B. Shoe said:


> I tried my best to avoid getting on the Bird app last night. I figured I'd best give back any precious bandwidth that I might be sucking up to the busted Internet water pipes for @compnurd and @raott to have their 17 concurrent streams of the game running in their homes. 🤓
> 
> I'm at the point where if someone wants to talk features to include in the future for streaming sports, I think that's fair fodder for discussion. There are things I'd like to see these services and broadcasts include in the future, too (see my thread on NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL+ services). Some of those things are good to hope for, but the lack thereof in the present doesn't make streaming an absolute failure. (Like, how much are you really using that rewind feature during a live broadcast?) I just can't anymore with the slippery slopes and generalities about streaming and references to streaming failures from seven years ago that keep getting tossed out here. It's becoming white noise to me and I just file past it.


I appreciate you thinking of us


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## joshjr

b4pjoe said:


> That's BS. I am "the older generation" and have no issues keeping up with technology. It isn't "the older generation". It is stubborn people who hate change. Both young and old.


I think you would have to admit you are in a minority though. I work for an ISP and I can tell you the older generation calls all the time. I hear the same thing all the time. We didnt grow up with computers. I understand it can be hard for them and I understand that it isnt all of them that have concerns with technology. Some if it is things like there is a Vizio TV that comes with a remote that has 3 buttons only (input isnt one of them) as they want you to use a smart phone to do anything on the TV. Well the people that call in that are over 70 a lot of times dont even have a smart phone. Also now days a lot of TVs have you custom name SSIDs or call them something generic instead of just HDM1. Much less sometime like Roku which is easy to move around it but the setup for older people is not as easy for them. I am glad you are not in the group that does not get it. Its not that hard to me either but I did grow up with computers.


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## Mike Lang

The glitches from Amazon are widely documented.

Amazon’s Thursday Night Football Makes Splashy Debut With A Few Glitches


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## b4pjoe

Mike Lang said:


> The glitches from Amazon are widely documented.
> 
> Amazon’s Thursday Night Football Makes Splashy Debut With A Few Glitches





> The main telecast drew complaints about the audio being off, the pictures being blurry and buffering issues, especially during the first half. *Others said the broadcast was crisp and issues were a probably a result of poor technology in the viewer’s household.*


If there were glitches attributed to the actual Amazon broadcast everyone would have had them. A lot of people saw no glitches at all.


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## Mike Lang

People on opposite sides of the country with different ISPs saw the same glitches. I'm sure Amazon will get it ironed out.


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## b4pjoe

Why did many people not see any glitches then? If there were issues with the actual broadcast everyone would have seen the exact same thing? ISP glitches are not the same thing as broadcast issues. Amazon cannot iron out ISP issues.


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## b4pjoe

Amazon actually pulled off its first big-deal football game


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## compnurd

Mike Lang said:


> The glitches from Amazon are widely documented.
> 
> Amazon’s Thursday Night Football Makes Splashy Debut With A Few Glitches


And the article also points out people had zero issues


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## AngryManMLS

I had a few frame drops here and there. Otherwise solid experience on my NVIDIA Shield TV Pro 2019 via Comcast (300mb down/10mb up).


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## wmb

harsh said:


> I think it can but it can't be hobbled by needing a not-universally-available MVPD subscription as was demanded by DIRECTV.


Let’s be honest… what’s hobbled ST is that it was an afterthought add-on to a still lucrative, 50+ year old business model offered that was offered as a loss leader to a different, less lucrative than it has been historically, related business model.

The latter business model is slowly dying which is the leading edge of the coming demise of the former business model.

We can see the future, but it it is still foggy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Mike Lang

compnurd said:


> And the article also points out people had zero issues


Yeah I'm seeing a handful of folks who didn't have notice issues that are quick to presume the rest of the country must have been "doing it wrong" as if they never looked away from the screen once in four hours a la A Clockwork Orange.


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## compnurd

Mike Lang said:


> Yeah I'm seeing a handful of folks who didn't have notice issues that are quick to presume the rest of the country must have been "doing it wrong" as if they never looked away from the screen once in four hours a la A Clockwork Orange.


Thats a bad comparison though.. Is there feedback saying that the local broadcasts were perfect?


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## b4pjoe

Mike Lang said:


> Yeah I'm seeing a handful of folks who didn't have notice issues that are quick to presume the rest of the country must have been "doing it wrong" as if they never looked away from the screen once in four hours a la A Clockwork Orange.


So basically streaming football has to be perfect for every TV in America because cable or satellite never has any issues?


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## glrush

The argument made by some was not whether it would be "perfect", it was rather "it won't work AT ALL". 
My experience was that it was, in fact, a better overall experience than on Fox or the NFL. The picture on my OLED was drop dead gorgeous, and except for some issues with the crowd noise being a little muddled, it was about as good as I hoped. 

Hate to rain on the "streaming won't work" parade, but streaming worked, and worked well. I look foreword to see how Amazon tweaks it as the season goes on.


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## Mike Lang

I don't think anyone pointing out the issues that Amazon had with the game is suggesting other means were ever perfect, just that Amazon wasn't either. Both things can be true no matter how many whataboutisms are thrown at it.


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## harsh

b4pjoe said:


> There were none from Amazon. I watched the pregame, game, and postgame with no droputs at all. Amazon can only control their own production.


If some of Amazon's CDNs aren't keeping up, that's Amazon's problem too. Streaming isn't just a direct pipe to the mother ship.


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## b4pjoe

Bottom line...streaming football works.


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## Bender The Lab

Sports Illustrated did a review of the game and this was actually in the article-

_Last night did nothing to change my feelings about streaming sports. I hate it and I don’t want to do it.

*I want to watch a game on a big TV, not my iPad or laptop or phone.*_

My 85” Z9K must of been lying to my eyes then.









Reviewing ‘Thursday Night Football’ on Amazon Prime Video - Sports Illustrated


Evaluation of NFL on Prime Video needs to be broken into two separate categories.




www.si.com


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## billsharpe

I have been streaming college football games for the past two weeks on YouTubeTV. It works very well on my Roku TV set. I also stream Netflix, Paramount+, Prime Video, Acorn, MLB and Peacock with no problems. I am not a pro football fan, so I did not watch the Chargers game on Thursday.


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## b4pjoe

Bender The Lab said:


> *I want to watch a game on a big TV, not my iPad or laptop or phone.*


That seems to be a common misconception that you have to watch streaming on a computer, phone, or tablet. I saw a lot of that on the misguided Twitter complaints.


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## cmasia

joshjr said:


> All this technology over the last 5-10 years had been hard on a lot of the older generation.


If you go on Twitter and search:

TNF Prime

You will find young people were equally flummoxed.

I'm ancient, but tech stupidity is an equal opportunity affliction.

Edit: A minor anecdote, but....I talked about this with my nephews, 30 years younger than me, and they said they never call ISP's, Cable companies, etc. EVER.
They said they have enough tech savvy friends to sort any issues they might have, unless something is truly broken.


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## James Long

Mike Lang said:


> Yeah I'm seeing a handful of folks who didn't have notice issues that are quick to presume the rest of the country must have been "doing it wrong" as if they never looked away from the screen once in four hours a la A Clockwork Orange.


There does seem to be people who could never be convinced that streaming could work and people who could never be convinced that streaming could fail. It is a shame that we can't cut through the previously held opinions and hear the truth.


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## neilo

I don't know whether it was a coincidence or whether Amazon was actually doing something, but I had buffering problems with watching some other Amazon shows while Thursday Night Football was on.

Later in the evening when watching TNF I had no problems with that. 

I was using an Amazon Fire Stick.


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## glenmick22

b4pjoe said:


> If there were glitches attributed to the actual Amazon broadcast everyone would have had them. A lot of people saw no glitches at all.


No glitches for me. Cable modem, 300 Mbs, Comcast. East coast. BTW, I am 71, a member of the “older generation” and tech savvy.


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## rjsimmons

I watched the game through fire cube and an app on a roku ultra. Worked great. AT&T fiber connection to the internet. Beautiful picture.


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## Bender The Lab

I wonder if some of these issues are more errors in the home, older router, too far away, using routers from Comcast, Charter, etc which have range issues, etc.


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## drpjr

Prime not ready for prime. First try Roku Ultra. All hardwired 100mbs. Picture looked like dial-up. Terrible audio sync issues. Tried other Prime shows and other apps all great. This is two weeks in a row. Hard pass.









Next up Sony internal app picture was glorious. Best sports I've seen. Audio was still out. Like a second or more ahead of the video. You could hear cheers before the plays ended. Went to captioning. Mostly flashed on and off so fast I thought it was subliminal advertising. Unreadable. Captioning was also annoyingly large. Pass.
OTA sub-channels and Directv warts and all are better than this.

Given the chance for that great PQ I'll give a try next week but this is already old.


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## the2130

Picture quality was excellent, but I did have a few instances of buffering in the second half. I was using a wired connection to my TV. I have AT&T Gb fiber service, I stream a lot of video every day, and I almost never have buffering over wired connections.


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## Mauiguy

ON Thursday I was experimenting with my Samsung TV app for Amazon Prime, and My Firestick 4k. The TV app sound was run through my Denon amplifier via optical out from TV. The Firestrick is directly input into the Denon and routed to the TV.

The picture on the Firestick was darker than what i would expect with HDR set to on or off. In addition, I found it to pixelate frequently. Usually the pixelation was more like mosquito noise around the players heads. There was also a judder effect on some of the running plays. (as if a frame dropped.)

The app on the TV was perfect. The picture was clear and brighter. NO pixelations nor "frame dropping". 

The problems on the Firestick could be associated with the routing of the picture through the amp. (Firestick, Amp and TV with all of the "features" for picture enhancement etc.) I did try call of the possible settings on the firestick to no noticeable improvement.

Currently i am subscribed to Hawaiiantel fiber with 500 down and 300 up. However, a problem at Hawaiintel has me running at 247 down and 150 up.

I put the above information out because i believe that there are many who will look at a particular stream and declare it unsatisfactory while not looking at different options for viewing.

I should also say that the Firestick 4k is fine for movies, but it has failed twice now on streaming football. As i have said it may be the Denon and I will reset it soon to see if things can be improved.


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## alaskanaking

I'm in Juneau Alaska using 4 foot dish with DirecTV on a Roku TCL TV. The Amazon Prime first half of the game had a horrible picture, barely watchable. The problem was fixed for the second half; the picture in the second half was fantastic.


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## harsh

James Long said:


> It is a shame that we can't cut through the previously held opinions and hear the truth.


The problem is that the ability to stream is absolutely situational. There is no universal "truth".


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## harsh

Mauiguy said:


> I should also say that the Firestick 4k is fine for movies, but it has failed twice now on streaming football. As i have said it may be the Denon and I will reset it soon to see if things can be improved.


The test here would be to install the FireTV 4K on the TV to verify that the Denon isn't trashing its output. That's part of the magic of dongles; they're easy to move around.


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## MadmanR

Got an email alert from DBSTALK for this topic and, after reading the prior posts, decided to jump in here with some reactions.



glrush said:


> I streamed the game on three 4K capable TV's last night and* the game was visually gorgeous.* No glitches at all on the video.
> The *sound *from the crowd seemed muffled though...
> Overall tho, well done by Amazon. I'm sure there will be tweaks going forward but for their first regular season game, it worked well for me.


As someone with a truly lousy Internet service from T-mobile and their mandated hardware (Franklin T-10 "Mobile HotSpot") I had fairly low expectations, particularly with this caveat from them:

"..._Deprioritized mobile hotspots are still connected to the internet, but are provided service at slower speeds... Our mobile hotspots work best for desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones. Unfortunately, they *do NOT work best for streaming on televisions* or for game systems_."

That said, my game-time live action experience came through beautifully via my ROKU Ultra.
With the exception of low-level audio the entire time, video quality stabilized (after the pre-game foolishness) and stayed strong and clear the whole game.

Happily I didn't have to power-cycle the blasted modem even once -- an all too common necessity during hockey games this past spring and always at the worst possible times.



glrush said:


> ...Hate to rain on the "streaming won't work" parade, but streaming worked, and worked well. I look foreword to see how Amazon tweaks it as the season goes on.


Yessir, some tweaking is expected but, largely, very minor stuff.
Even with my crappy connectivity, yes it "_worked, and worked well_."

As for those comments on *age *and one's technical literacy...


cmasia said:


> If you go on Twitter and search:
> TNF Prime
> You will find young people were equally flummoxed.
> *I'm ancient, but tech stupidity is an equal opportunity affliction.*


With gentle admonition this is really a matter of ignorance -- not stupidity -- at any age. Or, as it's been said:
*"Ignorance can be conquered by education; stupidity is permanent, immutable." *



glenmick22 said:


> No glitches for me. Cable modem, 300 Mbs, Comcast. East coast. BTW, I am 71, a member of the “older generation” and tech savvy.


Same here at a glorious age of 72 1/2.

Started playing with "A/V" hardware over 50 years ago, mating the earphone output jack of a 12" b&w TV to my SANSUI 5000a receiver (a very bad idea for my KLH speakers) in order to "experience" the Bears and Lions on a first season MNF broadcast with friends.
First time worked just fine but the next week my Packer-fan friends asked me to turn it up a bit and that was "Goodbye!" to the left speaker's woofer.
Live and learn.

So, to me, the whole question of "tech savvy" is only a matter of one's motivation to learn.
No matter what age you are.


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## tjpsnj

I have directTV. How do I watch the game without streaming it? I want to DVR it so I can watch it when I get home.


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## Mike Lang

the2130 said:


> Picture quality was excellent, but I did have a few instances of buffering in the second half. I was using a wired connection to my TV. I have AT&T Gb fiber service, I stream a lot of video every day, and I almost never have buffering over wired connections.


That was my son's glitchy experience as well. No Wi-Fi involved. A hardwired AppleTV 4K via CAT6 to a gigabit ISP. Zero glitching on any other content including Amazon. The issues began with the game and ended with the game.


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## b4pjoe

tjpsnj said:


> I have directTV. How do I watch the game without streaming it? I want to DVR it so I can watch it when I get home.


You can't with DIRECTV unless you are in the local area of one of the teams playing. If you are it will be on a local network channel.

If you have Amazon Prime you can set it to record the whole season to the cloud and go back and watch the games at any time but it will be streaming of the recorded game.


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## James Long

tjpsnj said:


> I have directTV. How do I watch the game without streaming it? I want to DVR it so I can watch it when I get home.


Unfortunately, unless you live in the home market of one of the two teams playing that Thursday night the game is only available via streaming. (Businesses using DIRECTV for Business can view the games but not residential customers.)


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## harsh

tjpsnj said:


> I have directTV. How do I watch the game without streaming it?


Typically no (unless it is "local" as b4pjoe points out).

If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can stream it at any time but you'll want to set it up for recording as documented in item 12 of this FAQ:






Thursday Night Football Support - Amazon Customer Service


Here is what to do if you're having issues watching live coverage of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video.



www.amazon.com


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## b4pjoe

‘Thursday Night Football’ Amazon Debut “A Resounding Success,” Prime Video Sports Boss Jay Marine Says


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## harsh

b4pjoe said:


> ‘Thursday Night Football’ Amazon Debut “A Resounding Success,” Prime Video Sports Boss Jay Marine Says


Amazon's metrics surely aren't the arbiter of Amazon's end-customer performance.


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## B. Shoe

> “Our first exclusive_ TNF_ broadcast delivered the most watched night of primetime in the U.S. in the history of Prime Video,” the VP Prime Video, Global Head of Sports, also told colleagues in the memo (read it below). “This is a massive achievement. During our _TNF_ broadcast, we also saw the biggest three hours for U.S. Prime sign ups ever in the history of Amazon – including Prime Day, Cyber Monday, and Black Friday.”


End-customer performance in streaming is based, in part, upon the end user's ability to stream. Based on the sample audience on this board, that ability varies greatly. While Jeff Bezos controls many things in this big world, the entire Internet isn't one of them. If everything worked perfectly, there would still be five people who had some sort of issue, took to Twitter with it, and an article would appear on some website claiming "Thursday Night Football A Failure For NFL Viewers." Even for a venture as big as Amazon, you can sometimes only control what you can control. It's up to the NFL to determine if the product being offered is worth it to the end-customer.

That being said, if there's any truth to this statement, then it's a huge success for Amazon.


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## James Long

harsh said:


> Amazon's metrics surely aren't the arbiter of Amazon's end-customer performance.


The owners being happy is a good thing. Returning viewers would probably give a better view of long term success. But Amazon gets to set the goals for measuring success. I believe they are getting their money's worth out of their investment.


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## SamC

Amazon is “declaring victory”. Which is what PR press flacks do. It doesn’t really mean anything. The vaunted ratings, which it is paying Nielsen to include TNF in, are “delayed indefinitely” (that means they are lower than expected) and the technical issues are mounting.


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## glrush

Impressive start for Amazon Thursday Night Football - Sports Media Watch


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## compnurd

SamC said:


> Amazon is “declaring victory”. Which is what PR press flacks do. It doesn’t really mean anything. The vaunted ratings, which it is paying Nielsen to include TNF in, are “delayed indefinitely” (that means they are lower than expected) and the technical issues are mounting.


Or there were 13 million


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## Bender The Lab

SamC said:


> Amazon is “declaring victory”. Which is what PR press flacks do. It doesn’t really mean anything. The vaunted ratings, which it is paying Nielsen to include TNF in, are “delayed indefinitely” (that means they are lower than expected) and the technical issues are mounting.


Well, this post did not age well.


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## James Long

compnurd said:


> Or there were 13 million


Or 11.8 million ... the rest watched their in market TV affiliate. Not bad.


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## AngryManMLS

Audio is much better tonight.


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## makaiguy

For me, no problems watching the Pittsburgh/Cincinnati game on Sept 22... other than the performance of my team. Maybe I can blame Amazon.


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## djmaxwell

makaiguy said:


> For me, no problems watching the Pittsburgh/Cincinnati game on Sept 22... other than the performance of my team. Maybe I can blame Amazon.


If you were watching Cincinnati, then you might have bigger problems...


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## B. Shoe

djmaxwell said:


> If you were watching Cincinnati, then you might have bigger problems...


It was weird. When I watched my Steelers play on Amazon, I never saw the Steelers offense get in the red zone. It was like the picture just stopped, and the next thing I knew, the opponents had the football. Maybe it'll get better next time.


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## AngryManMLS

Something tells me most people were probably wishing Amazon would have glitched that entire Broncos/Colts game out of existence.


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## James Long

So other than the quality of the play on the field the Thursday games are "acceptable"?

_Colts-Broncos averaged a 4.9 rating and 9.70 million viewers on the latest edition of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, marking the lowest rated and least-watched TNF game of the season (four telecasts). It was also the first TNF game to post a year-over-year decline, sinking 41% in ratings and more than a third in viewership from last year’s equivalent Rams-Seahawks game — the first TNF simulcast on FOX last season (8.2, ~14.8M).

Despite the audience sinking more than a third from last year, Broncos-Colts actually averaged more viewers in 18-34 than last year’s FOX simulcast — rising 5% from 2.13 to 2.25 million in the demo. TNF is now averaging 2.66 million viewers in 18-34 this season, up two-thirds from last year (1.59M). Viewership is also up 40% in adults 18-49 (from 4.09M to 5.74M).

Notably, TNF averaged a higher rating in 18-34 than the latest edition of Monday Night Football on ESPN and ESPN2 (3.21 to 2.95), despite the Monday night game averaging nearly three million more viewers overall. It also came to within a ratings point of MNF in 18-49 (3.81 to 3.90)._


https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2022/10/thursday-night-football-ratings-colts-broncos-season-low-still-up-18-34/



Streaming skews toward the younger audience so it makes sense that 18-34 is up. TNF beating MNF in the demo shows the strength of streaming over having the content on MVPD only channels. ESPN ended up winning in overall viewership but Amazon was not far behind.

Considering the quality of the game the ratings were good. The Colts won 4-3 ... that is four field goals to three field goals. A game with no touch downs?

_As the broadcast was going on, "Thursday Night Football" play-by-play voice Al Michaels sounded off several times on the quality — or lack thereof — of the game._
The game was in the third quarter before Al Michaels could say "first and goal". And that run ended up with a blocked field goal. Sad.









Al Michaels, Broncos TV station apologetic to viewers over 'Thursday Night Football' trainwreck: 'It burns the retinas'


NFL fans tuning in to the Thursday night clash between the Broncos and Colts were not exactly treated to a pleasant viewing experience.




www.sportingnews.com


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## Rob37

Amazon's Thursday Night Football Ratings Are Plummeting


Amazon Prime's ratings for Thursday Night Football are falling rapidly.




www.thebiglead.com


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## compnurd

Rob37 said:


> Amazon's Thursday Night Football Ratings Are Plummeting
> 
> 
> Amazon Prime's ratings for Thursday Night Football are falling rapidly.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.thebiglead.com


 Not there fault the games suck


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