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Amazon‘s Prime Video has won the exclusive rights to stream a National Football League playoff game next season, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC.
The company earned the right to secure the game by hitting certain viewership metrics this past season as part of its “Thursday Night Football” agreement with the league, the source said. In 2021, Amazon agreed to pay about $1 billion a year for the exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football.
Last month, NBCUniversal’s Peacock showed an NFL Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, marking the first time a playoff game was broadcast exclusively on a streaming service.
NBCUniversal had looked to keep the streaming-only playoff matchup next season, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on Amazon’s latest deal with the the NFL.
Amazon and the NFL declined to comment. A representative from NBCUniversal didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon is betting heavily on sports broadcasting with the hope that it will boost its Prime membership. The Prime subscription program, which charges $139 per year for a host of perks including free shipping, now has some 200 million subscribers worldwide. Amazon has said there are 80 million active Prime Video households in the U.S.
— CNBC’s Stephen Desaulniers contributed reporting.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Peacock and CNBC