Newest perk for Amazon Prime members? NFL football livestreams

The newest perk for Amazon Prime members includes Tom Brady, Cam Newton, J.J. Watt and other NFL superstars.

That’s because Amazon is spending $50 million for the rights to livestream 10 games on Thursday nights during the 2017 NFL season, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s 5x what Twitter paid for the same exact livestreaming package this past season. The Journal says Twitter bid again for this year’s games, along with Google and Facebook.

Unlike Twitter last year, Amazon won’t stream the games to anyone who wants to watch online. Instead, it’ll be a new perk for Amazon Prime members — part of the annual $99 package they buy that includes free two-day shipping and a variety of media-based benefits, including other TV shows, movies and music.

Amazon Senior VP Jeff Blackburn gave this confirmation to the Journal:

“We’re focused on bringing our customers what they want to watch, [and] Prime members want the NFL.”

Much like Twitter’s deal last year, Amazon will carry the CBS and NBC broadcasts and show most of their TV commercials in the online stream. The company will also be able to sell some ad space or use it to promote its own products and services. Amazon likely hopes it’ll also sell some more Amazon Prime memberships, but that would seem to be a secondary benefit, since CBS and NBC will also offer livestreams for free.

According to our calculations, Twitter averaged about 266,000 viewers per minute during its 10-game deal last year.

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Matt McGee

Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee. You can read Matt’s disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.