Amazon and NFL Renew ‘Thursday Night Football’ Streaming Deal — and Add One Saturday Game

Kurt Schlosser, GeekWire
Kurt Schlosser covers the Geek Life beat for GeekWire. A longtime journalist, photographer and designer, he has worked previously for NBC News, msnbc.com and the Seattle P-I.
Amazon and NFL Renew ‘Thursday Night Football’ Streaming Deal — and Add One Saturday Game
Sports fans missing baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer and just about anything else that should be in play right now are holding out hope for the return of football in the fall. And Amazon is right there with them, as the tech giant announced Wednesday that it will once again deliver the live digital stream for "Thursday Night Football."

The National Football League and Amazon reached a multi-year agreement to renew their exclusive partnership, which brings 11 games broadcast by FOX on television to an audience watching on Prime Video and Twitch across a variety of sites, apps and devices.

Amazon said that makes the games available to 150 million paid Prime members in over 200 countries. The company took over streaming rights for "TNF" from Twitter in 2017.

The new deal brings with it the right to exclusively stream one regular season game globally on Prime Video and Twitch. That game will be played on a Saturday in the second half of the 2020 regular season — and will still be televised in the participating teams' home markets.

"As our relationship has expanded, Amazon has become a trusted and valued partner of the NFL," Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer for the NFL, said in a news release. "Extending this partnership around 'Thursday Night Football' continues our critical mission of delivering NFL games to as many fans in as many ways as possible both in the United States and around the world."

Amazon's version of "TNF" on Prime Video and Twitch brings with it some unique interactive viewing features, such as X-Ray and Next Gen Stats powered by Amazon Web Services, which are intended to bring fans closer to the game.

AWS is the official cloud and machine learning provider for the Next Gen Stats platform, which provides real-time location data, speed, and acceleration for every player during every play. AWS also helped power the recent — and entirely remote — NFL Draft.

Members watching on Prime can choose to watch the FOX broadcast, the FOX Deportes Spanish language coverage, and multiple other audio options.

"We know Prime members and the Twitch community around the world love the NFL, and we remain committed to giving them the best and most customizable streaming experience possible, with a broad selection of premium content available at their fingertips," said Marie Donoghue, vice president of Global Sports Video at Amazon.

The average audience for "TNF" in 2019 was 15.4 million viewers. Digital streaming across Prime Video, Twitch, NFL digital, FOX Sports digital and Verizon Media mobile properties surpassed an average minute audience of over 1 million — up 43 percent from 2018.

The NFL streaming deal is part of Amazon's growing video arm that includes the company's Prime video library; its Amazon Studios production unit; and other sports-related live streaming deals.

Season five of the Amazon Original documentary series "All or Nothing," produced by NFL Films, premiered in February with "All or Nothing: The Philadelphia Eagles," exclusively on Prime Video.

This story first appeared on GeekWire.

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LA Tech Week: Goldhirsh Foundation and the Positive Effects of Technology

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech Week: Goldhirsh Foundation and the Positive Effects of Technology
Photo taken by Decerry Donato

On Monday, Los Angeles-based philanthropic organization Goldhirsh Foundation hosted the Technology and Storytelling For Social Good panel at Creative Visions studio to kick off LA Tech week.

Tara Roth, president of the foundation, moderated the panel and gathered nonprofit and tech leaders including Paul Lanctot, web developer of The Debt Collective; Alexis Cabrera, executive director of 9 Dots; Sabra Williams, co-founder of Creative Acts; and Laura Gonzalez, senior program manager of Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).

Each of the panelists are grantees of Goldhirsh Foundation’s LA2050, an initiative launched in 2011 that is continuously trying to drive and track progress toward a shared vision for the future of Los Angeles. Goldhirsh’s vision is to make Los Angeles better for all and in order to achieve their goal, the foundation makes investments into organizations, creates partnerships and utilizes social capital through community events.

The panelists shared how the work they are doing in each of their respective sectors uses technology to solve some of society's most pressing challenges and highlight the importance of tech literacy across every community.

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Here’s What To Do At LA Tech Week

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

Here’s What To Do At LA Tech Week
Evan Xie

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MONDAY

LA Hardtech: Local Talent Meets CEOs: Want to see robots in action? This hardtech event will showcase product demos and feature conversations about all things aircrafts, satellites, electric vehicles, robots and medical devices. June 5 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in El Segundo.

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SUPERCHARGE LA: Access to Capital & Cocktails (LA TECH WEEK)

Are you excited for LA Tech Week's most anticipated event: SUPERCHARGE LA: Access to Capital & Cocktails? We can't wait to see you at 1212 Santa Monica on Wednesday, June 7th, from 6-10 p.m.

Get ready for an evening filled with networking, inspiration, and fun with special guests Grammy-winning singer and entrepreneur Miguel, Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, and more!

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