Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service, is getting ready to enter its second year as the exclusive rights holder to NFL's Thursday Night Football (TNF) as it looks to give viewers a more enhanced viewing experience with a range of new AI-driven features.

During a demo with Prime Video executives, TechCrunch learned about the AI elements coming to TNF this season, as well as the first Black Friday NFL game and when viewers can expect HDR video quality.

AI is changing how sports content is consumed
Indeed, if we asked someone about sports broadcasting a few years ago, we probably would have bet that the last thing on their mind would be AI and ML. However, use of AI and ML models in sports dramatically altered the way hardcore fans view games as it enables them to dive deeper into analytics.

"We don't want to just put math on the screen," said Betsy Riley, senior coordinating producer at Prime Video to us. "It is about using data to tell a deeper story and bringing our fans insights so that they understand the game better. We think doing that lets people understand the chess match that's unfolding on the field.". As a tech company, it's been really fun for us to dig into the numbers and think about ways we can innovate and use tech to tell the story of the game in deeper and more meaningful ways.

The Seattle-based company rolled out AI for TNF last year, such as X-Ray, providing fans with live access to real-time statistics and data; Rapid Recap, which creates up to 13 two-minute-long highlights for viewers to catch up on plays during a game and more. And after winning its first Sports Emmy award in May, it's safe to say the tech behemoth isn't easing up on the gas.

All the new AI features will reside in Prime Vision, including Next Gen Stats — TNF's weekly alternate stream featuring different graphic overlays on the screen while plays are underway so fans can see stats and analysis in real time.

Note, Amazon will test some of the features internally in tonight's preseason game at 8 p.m. ET. The fans won't be able to experience them yet, though. The features roll out on September 14th, when the 2023 season begins. (Fans can find the complete TNF schedule on Amazon's website).

Defensive Alerts
What if we said AI could predict blitzes? Defensive Alerts is Amazon's in-house ML neural network that recognizes when defensive players are about to rush the opposing quarterback. A red orb will appear around the players of interest so fans know exactly who to focus on.

It can kind of look at every player's XY coordinate data, how they relate to each other, and their accelerations where they're moving and how fast are they moving directionally to kind of predict who's going to blitz," explained Sam Schwartzstein, TNF Analytics Expert at Prime Video.

Schwartzstein says the ML model was trained on 35,000 plays and will continue to get smarter. He told TechCrunch the model is identifying blitzes and situations better than many offensive linemen. The team has a panel of NFL experts - former quarterbacks, coaches, and offensive linemen - that help annotate the plays, he added.

"Having this as an in-house neural network can only expand the kind of features that we can do in the future," he said.

Prime Targets
Prime Targets (highlighted in the top image of the page) functions similarly because a green ball will light up an open receiver for a pass. The feature automatically tracks when a quarterback drops back to prepare to throw a pass, and then the receiver (lit up by the green ball) runs out and creates separation from himself and the defenders.

Previously called Open Receiver, this feature tracked which players would most likely convert the first down. Amazon tested it during the games last season.

"This is the first statistic that is measuring the process of the play," Schwartzstein noted. "Everything that we do on Prime Vision is predictive… This is all in real-time."

Fourth Down Territory
Amazon also is introducing a feature that could potentially assist fans in better understanding how fourth-down decisions are made while perhaps helping teams to prepare for fourth downs.

The fourth down territory is a place on the field where offensive players step only for the sake of trying to tie or win the game. Down the ages, historically, it's always followed that coaches usually punt the ball away because it feels less risk-prone. But as time rolls on, there are more and more teams going for fourth down conversion. 

Instead of allowing analytics to appear on the screen after the play has occurred, Fourth Down Territory functions like an actual NFL analytics coordinator - and actually shows viewers exactly when a team should try a fourth down and what the probability is.

Field Goal Target Zones
Fans of the NFL are used to seeing lines across the field for field goals on broadcasts – that digital line at the end of half or end of the game, where if a team gets to it, they can kick a field goal. Amazon's feature, Field Goal Target Zones, will have several lines across the television that will let the viewer know what the chances are at each of those points that a kicker will make a field goal.

Key Plays
Key Plays lets fans see in-game highlights and crucial moments, whether they're watching live or watching later on-demand. Similar to Rapid Recap, the AI and machine learning behind the scenes make sure that through Key Plays, no fan will miss out on a moment of action on the field.

The first-ever Black Friday NFL game will stream for free on Prime Video

Viewers can expect the first NFL Black Friday game. Amazon and the NFL in late fall announced Prime Video would exclusively stream the NFL's first Black Friday game on November 24, when the Miami Dolphins were playing against the New York Jets. An expected kick-off is set for 3 p.m. ET.

For one, the game will be available to watch at no cost to non-subscribers. The e-commerce giant also will leverage the event to advertise some exclusive shopping deals to viewers.

On a press call earlier in the week, Prime Video's global head of sports, Jay Marine, gave a hint that Amazon has some "interesting things" planned for Black Friday that would be "additive" for fans.

Although the company didn't want to say much more, Riley, in an interview with TechCrunch, said it was likely that we would hear more in the next weeks. That's our take on this, at least. Amazon is probably going to add interactive shopping elements to cash in on the most popular shopping day of the year. The company last year launched a dedicated fan store page, TNF Central, offering TNF-related items, NFL-branded merch and Amazon devices.

We also spoke with Eric Orme, who serves as Director of Live Events at Prime Video. Orme oversees global product, engineering and operations for live sports events, including Thursday Night Football, the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, MLB, NBA and U.S. Open tennis, among others.

Prime Video will be bound to see viewership rise during the Black Friday game since everyone will be home for this holiday weekend. However, Orme is confident it will be a smooth streaming experience for all viewers.

"We work really closely with the retail teams and everybody's leveraging AWS, so we spend a lot of time around traffic projections," Orme said. "We ran a bunch of scenarios and are really confident where we think that number is going to be."

Prime Video brings HDR video quality to TNF
Although the streamer previously tried HDR streaming last season, it will finally be accessible to all TNF viewers this year. Many fans will most likely appreciate the visual upgrade because it provides a more compelling experience, with greater contrast and vivid colors.

The company said that it will be available on any HDR-enabled device; subscribers don't need to change anything in settings because the livestream will automatically be upgraded.