Amazon scores streaming rights for NFL's Thursday Night Football
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[April 05, 2017]
By Jeffrey Dastin
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc will
live-stream games for the U.S. National Football League this year, a
company spokeswoman said on Tuesday, marking a high-profile push by
the online retailer to attract fans to its Prime shopping and
video-playback club.
As part of the deal, Amazon will stream 10 Thursday-night games
online for Prime members exclusively. The same games will be
broadcast by networks CBS and NBC on television.
Amazon beat out Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc and Google's YouTube for
the digital distribution rights, according to a person familiar with
the matter. The Seattle-based company agreed to pay the NFL five
times what Twitter spent on the rights last year, which was reported
to be $10 million, the person said.
Amazon declined to comment on the deal's price tag.
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The deal underscores a key strategy Amazon has to win a greater
share of shoppers' wallets: offer benefits like fast shipping and
video-streaming so people sign up for Prime and, consequently, turn
to Amazon for more of their purchases.
While the Seattle-based company has streamed live events in the
past, the NFL may be its biggest stage yet, and reflects Amazon's
push beyond its mainstay of on-demand video.
Sports fans are increasingly relying on the internet to watch
content at the expense of traditional cable and satellite
connections. Twitter attracted 243,000 viewers on average during its
NFL livestream debut last year.
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![](../images/040517pics/sports57.jpg)
The NFL logo is seen on a trailer parked near the New Meadowlands
Stadium where the New York Jets and New York Giants NFL football
teams play home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey, March 14,
2011. REUTERS/Mike Segar
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"The NFL was a great partner to launch our strategy and we will
continue to work with them to bring great content to our passionate
sports fans," the social media company said in a statement.
News of the deal with Amazon was earlier reported by technology news
site Recode.
(Additional Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru and David
Ingram in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Stephen
Coates) [© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All
rights reserved.]
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