Erik Gruenwedel

January 11, 2023

Amazon reported Prime Video’s first season of exclusive NFL “Thursday Night Football” coverage delivered a run of streaming milestones and sports media breakthroughs.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the inaugural season of “TNF” on Prime Video featured the most-streamed NFL football games ever and attracted audiences that were considerably younger, watched more minutes of the game, and commanded higher household incomes than NFL viewers on traditional broadcast and cable platforms.

The 15-game average of each “TNF” stream’s peak viewership reached 11.3 million, which is down 8% from an average of 12.3 million viewers when the game was a split telecast on Fox Sports and NFL Network. Prime Video said the average game viewership reached 9.58 million, which was more than 16% below 2021.

Amazon is paying the NFL $11 billion for exclusive distribution rights to ‘Thursday Night Football” through 2033.

“Thursday Night Football” finished the season with the youngest median age of any NFL broadcast package since 2013 and enjoyed a double-digit jump over the previous season among hard-to-reach 18- to 34-year-old viewers.

“We are only at the beginning of a long-term mission, but are ecstatic with the results and achievements of this first season, bringing millions of new viewers to Prime Video every week,” Jay Marine, VP of prime video and global head of sports, said in a statement.

Each Thursday throughout the 2022 NFL season, Prime Video’s streaming presentation featured Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit and Kaylee Hartung handling game coverage, as well as myriad options for alternate streams, instant access to game stats and options such as “Rapid Recap.”

Prime Video’s pregame and postgame featured host Charissa Thompson, Tony Gonzalez, all-star boradcasting rookies Ryan Fitzpatrick, Richard Sherman and Andrew Whitworth, and contributors Taylor Rooks and Michael Smith, contributing to more than 285 million video views across “TNF’s” social channels throughout the season.

Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!

Other “Thursday Night Football” stats saw the average audience cross the 10-million mark six times during the 2022 season, ranking the games high among the most-watched events in all of television.

Throughout the 2022 season, fans watching “TNF” on Prime held a median age of 47 years old, which is seven years younger than the average median age of viewers watching the NFL on linear TV. “TNF” on Prime viewers earned a median household income of $98,500, which is 19% higher than audiences watching the NFL on linear networks ($82,800).