TV Execs Believe NFL is Favoring Amazon to ‘Create Leverage’ in 2029

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The NBA’s 11-year, $77 billion deal with Disney’s ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and Comcast’s NBC Sports will go down as easily the biggest media-rights story of 2024. But another potential soap opera is building and could become very dramatic in 2025: TV network executives are increasingly resentful toward the NFL for giving Amazon Prime Video what they believe is favored status.

Under the 11-year, $111 billion media-rights deal signed by the NFL in 2021, the league splits live game rights among five rival entities: Paramount Global’s CBS Sports, Disney’s ESPN and ABC, Comcast’s NBC Sports, Fox Corp.’s Fox Sports, and Amazon. That’s four legacy media giants and one giant streamer, albeit one with more than 200 million subscribers.

As recently as five years ago, traditional linear networks did not want Thursday Night Football because it received the weakest game schedule. But during its three-season run as TNF’s exclusive streamer, Prime’s schedule appears to have gotten better.

Prime’s 17-game schedule this year features 12 divisional matchups, including a game the Super Bowl champion Chiefs won 19–17 over the rival Raiders on Black Friday. Sure, Prime got a Christmas turkey last week with the Rams’ 12–6 NFC West snoozer over the 49ers. But that was a good matchup on paper, and one week before, Jay Marine’s Prime also had one of the best games of the year: the Lions’ thrilling 34–31 win over NFC North rival Packers.

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With just two regular-season games left on its schedule, TNF is averaging 13.51 million viewers. That’s up 12% from the same point in 2023 (12.1 million)—and a whopping +41% over the 2022 full-season average (9.58 million).

The Lions-Packers nail-biter on Dec. 5 averaged a broadcast TV–worthy 17.29 million viewers, up 61% over the comparable game last season. It shattered Prime’s previous record for the most-watched TNF tilt—the Cowboys-Giants NFC East matchup on Sept. 26—by more than a million viewers.

“The NFL has slanted so far in the direction of [Prime], it’s not even funny,” an executive at a network that airs NFL games told Front Office Sports.

As salt in the wound for the TV networks, Amazon is paying the lowest amount in annual rights fees. Prime pays $1 billion a year for TNF. CBS, NBC, and Fox are on the hook for roughly $2 billion annually, and ESPN pays $2.7 billion.

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From the beginning, Prime has demonstrated an ability to attract viewers nearly seven years younger on average than its linear rivals. Through Week 15, TNF is drawing an NFL-best 2.7 million viewers under 35 years old per game. 

“The youth angle is one of the reasons the [NFL and NBA] are excited about Amazon,” said a source with knowledge of the situation. “They’re the next generation of fans.”

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