Amazon Prime TNF an Apparent Hit

[PGage]

it was reported yesterday (see, for example, Deadline here:

https://deadline.com/2022/09/nfl-thursday-night-football-amazon-debut-success-sports-boss-claims-1235122576/) that Amazon is doing a victory lap internally over the performance of Thursday Night Football last week. They had predicted to media buyers 12.5 Million, and apparently the numbers exceeded that.

The actual ratings will come out next week (still not sure how they get those), but Puck News’ Julia Alexander (who also works at Parrot Analytics), explained the real metric in her newsletter today:

“More crucially, [Amazon] said TNF led to more Prime signups in a three-hour window than Prime Day itself—a true testament to the power of the NFL. This is important: as I’ve written before, Prime Video needs to differentiate itself to audiences outside the core Prime shopper to grow meaningfully. This disclosure tells me there are plenty of people in the U.S. at the top of Amazon’s marketing funnel, just waiting for an enticement to move from awareness to subscription.”

Alexander has explained in the past that people who have a Prime subscription spend significantly more money buying stuff from Amazon than those who don’t. Another example of how complex the current television environment is; view ship numbers mean something different for a pure play streamer like Netflix than they do for bigger, diversified streamers like Amazon and Apple. Similarly, streamers that also have a separate stake in films for theatrical exhibition have different needs than those who just want streaming subscriptions, and differ too from those who still have broadcast or cable operations. And of course, some streamers are more than one of those things.

BTW, I should note for the record that, unlike Peacock, Amazon does ask when you click on the game in progress if you want to start viewing live, or from the beginning. Just another example of what a lousy interface Peacock has for streaming, easily the worst of the main options.

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[Kevin M.]

Yeah, what independent agency or group tracked those viewing numbers? Sorry, but I do not believe the numbers released directly from any streaming service. They are disinclined to be honest.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[David Bruggeman]

I am curious to see how TNF on Amazon, as well as the NFL + service (as a non-consumer of the game, I can't be sure if this is a new thing, or a rebrand/rebundling of existing services) changes the viewing experience and shifts the viewer demographics.

My speculation is that there might be a shift away from some of the cable packages toward stuff like Amazon and NFL +, but the league's dominance could easily mean that the viewing rights pie just gets bigger, providing more money for the owners and players to fight over during the next negotiations.

David

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[JW]

> as well as the NFL + service (as a non-consumer of the game, I can't be sure if

> this is a new thing, or a rebrand/rebundling of existing services)

It's the old Game Pass, where one can watch archived game broadcasts from 2009 through the previous weekend, as well as various NFL Films and NFL Network shows, combined with some live streaming ("Watch live local & primetime Regular Season games on your phone or tablet with NFL+"). The streaming includes the Amazon games.

[Tom Wolper]

For a number of years Yahoo Sports had a streaming deal with the NFL for mobile apps. They lost their rights to NFL+ this season.

The Thursday night game was created to get cable operators to pay a premium amount for the NFL Network. Without a live game there was no incentive to pay a premium price. I don’t know if the deal with Amazon means the end of the NFL Network. Whatever revenue the league hoped to get from the channel was dwarfed by the Amazon deal. It’s a pretty clear sign that the era of cable expansion is over and we’re now seeing streaming expansion.

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[PGage]

NFL Network is part of NFL Media (as is the non-Sunday Ticket version of Red Zone), and will be part of the new Sunday Ticket deal, likely up with Amazon, Apple or Disney. My ongoing question is, going forward, will we be able to get regular Red Zone without paying for Sunday Ticket?

So, no, I guess this is not the end of the NFL Network per se, but yes, it is the end of the original idea behind NFL Network, which was the NFL cutting out the middle man and creating its own cable presence. One of the Deep, Deep pocket streamers is going to have Sunday Ticket (= affluent football fans and consumers) and NFL Media is hitching its flag to that.

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[Mark Jeffries]

Amazon says that Nielsen's doing the measurement and that the advertisers demanded that it be done so they could get a third-party measurement of viewership.

Mark Jeffries
spotl...@gmail.com

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