Amazon is teaming up with the National Football League to take advantage of holiday shoppers who are still on their couch Friday recovering from Thanksgiving. The two are joining forces to air the NFL's first-ever Black Friday football game.
On what is the biggest shopping day of the year, Amazon is looking to keep NFL fans seated — and shopping — from the comfort of their own home as a divisional showdown between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins airs exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
After the deal was announced by Amazon late last year, the retail giant's head of global sports, Jay Marine, said he hopes it's an event that can be rooted in holiday tradition.
"We’re thrilled to create a new holiday tradition on the national sports calendar with the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday Football game," Marine said in a statement. "We’ve worked tirelessly to create an unparalleled gameday experience for fans, with elements ranging from the family-driven alternate stream with Dude Perfect, contributions from award-winning chef David Chang, exclusive retail deals revealed throughout the game, and a postgame concert with Garth Brooks."
As mentioned, Amazon hopes to deliver an unprecedented event focused on things like football, family, food, and — of course — shopping. Throughout the livestream, Amazon will present viewers with special Black Friday shopping deals and limited quantity product drop from some of its biggest brands. There will also be one major promotion during each of the game's four quarters.
The rights to air live sports are more valuable than ever right now. Amazon is dishing out more than $1 billion a year to air Thursday Night Football games, but paid $100 million for this special Black Friday showdown. And it's just the latest experiment to see how much more time — and money — the two sides can squeeze from Americans' pockets.
The game begins Friday from MetLife Stadium in New York at 3 p.m. ET and is available for all fans to stream for free, regardless whether they have an Amazon Prime account or not. It will also play over the air on TV stations in the two competing teams' hometowns of Miami and New York.
Gage Jackson
