Amazon is set to take over full control of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football property starting in 2022, and The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch caught up with a prominent voice at the company to get some insight into Amazon’s NFL vision.
Deitsch spoke with the vice president of global sports video at Amazon, Marie Donoghue, about the company’s plans for the property.
“I can just say for us, we’re really excited,” Donoghue told Deitsch. “Thursday Night Football already is the top weeknight primetime show on television. We’re now getting a broader package. We get 15 games. We think there’s a great opportunity. It’s the start of the football week, so you can kind of own between Monday and Thursday. We’re particularly excited for the innovation we can bring for fans. We think for advertising, it’s a game-changer.”
Deitsch asked specifically about Amazon’s plans for 2022 talent, including the play-by-play voice. Rumors have circulated for months that Amazon is pursuing NBC’s Al Michaels to join next season.
“I think what I would say is we are working rigorously and feverishly to build a world-class team,” Donoghue deflected. “We will offer a top-notch product next year, and that includes folks in the booth, folks behind the scenes, folks on alternate broadcast, folks working on product. We are building a world-class team in all aspects of our coverage.”
One thing Amazon ushered in over the last few years is alternate broadcasts. The Scouts Feed and other different ways to watch Thursday Night Football on Amazon have grown recently. ESPN also found success with this on big events in the past and the ManningCast.
“What we’ve learned is we know fans are consuming and engaging in content in different ways,” Donoghue said. “Alternate feeds are a prime example of that. For us, whether it’s listening to Hannah [Storm] and Andrea [Kremer] on a journalistic take or Bucky Brooks and Daniel Jeremiah and Joy Taylor or diving deep with X-Ray, we know that customers love choice.”
Check out the full conversation between Deitsch and Donoghue here.