Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ is winning over advertisers after a bumpy launch year, and a top exec says it will be ‘aggressive’ in pursuing more live sports

• Amazon says its NFL advertising offering is benefiting from the Hollywood strikes.
• The tech giant is gearing up for a big ‘Thursday Night Football’ season with key matchups and new ad offerings.
• It’s also gotten more competitive in ad prices and is seeking more live sports deals.

After some hiccups with its inaugural NFL “Thursday Night Football” season on Prime Video last year, Amazon is back with a vengeance this year.

According to a top executive, Amazon is getting more TV ad dollars this year as the twin Hollywood strikes continue.

“Because of the strikes, more ad dollars are flowing to live sports, and there’s nothing more exciting than live sports,” said Jay Marine, Amazon’s VP of Prime Video and global head of sports, during a Zoom press conference previewing the fall season on Monday. “We’re getting a lot more than our fair share.”

Marine and “TNF” stars like Al Michaels and Kaylee Hartung also promoted the fall schedule, which will include key matchups, the NFL’s first Black Friday game, which will be free to all fans, as well as new audience targeting capabilities and interactive ads. The Minnesota Vikings face the Philadelphia Eagles in the first game of the 16-game season on September 14; a preseason game will be streamed on August 24.

“The additional creative function is a big deal,” Marine said of Amazon’s advertising offerings. “If you’re Toyota, you can now buy one slot and have a creative targeted to a family for minivans, and you can buy another slot for a truck commercial to different fans.” Historically, you couldn’t do that with traditional broadcast.”

Ad buyers confirmed to Insider that Amazon was benefiting from advertisers shifting up to 20% of their primetime TV budgets away from network television and cable due to the strikes.

According to one ad executive, Amazon’s ad prices have dropped significantly and are now competitive with other NFL broadcasters such as Fox and ESPN. It’s a big change from last year, when Amazon wanted to charge $80 to reach 1,000 viewers, or double the broadcast rates. Amazon also softened its initial request that advertisers buy the entire season’s games last year, giving them the option to buy a portion of the games.

Marine left no doubt that Amazon would continue to be a major player in live sports. At a time when sports rights fees are skyrocketing, putting financial strain on already struggling linear TV networks, he said the tech behemoth will remain “aggressive” in its pursuit of more rights, owing to sports’ unique ability to command a valuable audience.

A second buyer, Kelly Metz, managing director of Advanced TV Activation at Omnicom Media Group, told Insider that this year’s new targeting offering could help Amazon build its live streaming business.

“It is in an exceptional position to push the boundaries of dynamic advertising.” And if you’re thinking about adding sports leagues, they’ll be able to add new advertisers, diversify their strategy, and have more control over selling it,” she explained. “Think about events.” Assume they decide to buy the Emmys. That is possible.”

Marine said Monday that Amazon’s cost-cutting measures haven’t affected “TNF,” noting that airing “TNF” last year helped sign up new Prime members. According to him, the games also drew a younger audience than the NFL does on linear TV.

“We made an 11-year investment, and we’re going to continue to put everything against that,” he said, adding that the company is also interested in sports other than football. “We’ll keep looking at live rights.” We’ll be aggressive, but also reasonable.”

Amazon agreed to a $11 billion, 11-year deal with the NFL to be the exclusive streamer of “TNF” as part of the tech behemoth’s push to become a mainstream sports player. According to ad agency sources, Amazon had to make some advertisers whole after “TNF” audiences fell 25% short of expectations.

However, given that this was Amazon’s first attempt at a live sports broadcast, some advertisers were understanding. Fans had to change their viewing habits, and Amazon had to figure out how to publicize the stream.