Amazon's Thursday Night Football games to air in bars and restaurants in deal with DirecTV


Amazon's exclusive Thursday Night Football games are headed to thousands of bars and restaurants across the country.
Prime Video has entered into a multi-year agreement with DirecTV to bring its Thursday Night Football games to 300,000 "sports bars, restaurants, hotel lounges, retail shops and services" nationwide this season.
The deal comes after Amazon in 2021 reached an agreement with the NFL to offer 15 exclusive Thursday Night Football games and a pre-season game on Prime Video each year, becoming the first streaming service to secure such a deal with the league. It was originally expected to begin in 2023, but the deal was later moved up to 2022. But when the agreement was announced, it wasn't immediately clear how this might affect fans' ability to watch Thursday Night Football in sports bars.
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Now, DirecTV for Business says it will offer the Prime Video games to national chains, some of which have more than 1,000 locations, as well as "your favorite local pub just down the street," and the pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage will also be made available.
The deal will begin with an August 25 preseason game between the San Francisco 49ers at the Houston Texans, and it will include all the regular season games beginning Sept. 15, according to a press release. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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