It's a great day for football fans. Amazon announced that the exclusive Black Friday NFL game is going to be free to watch on Prime Video, whether you are a subscriber or not.
This is the first time that the NFL has had a game the day after Thanksgiving, which the league announced in October. So, to celebrate the occasion, Amazon is letting viewers watch it for no cost whatsoever.
The Black Friday game is expected to kickoff at 3 p.m. ET on November 24. Competition teams will be released later this year, as the entire 2023 NFL schedule is presented.
We're thrilled to broaden our partnership with the NFL and establish a new holiday ritual for our customers with the first-ever Black Friday NFL game," said Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video and global head of Sports, in a press release. "As families look to spend time together over the holiday weekend, we are excited to provide an opportunity for everyone to enjoy this new day of NFL action.
The NFL games during Thanksgiving are infamous. Take the Las Vegas Raiders versus Dallas Cowboys mashup in 2021: it drew 38.5 million viewers. That new Black Friday game is going to look pretty good, since everybody's going to be home during the holiday weekend.
The NFL and Amazon have a history dating back to 2017, when Prime Video first broadcast "Thursday Night Football" (TNF) games jointly with NBC, CBS and the NFL Network. Now in 2022, Prime Video is on exclusively their first streaming service securing the rights to the sports package as it becomes home to TNF. These 15 regular-season broadcasts were only accessible to paid subscribers, with the first game having 15.3 million viewers.