Amazon S Thursday Night Football Debut Did Better Than You D Think

The Nielsen-only tally is 47 percent better than last year’s Week 2 “Thursday Night Football” game, which aired solely on the NFL Network outside of local markets. It helped, of course, that Prime Video’s exclusive debut was a tight game with the Kansas City Chiefs outlasti ng the Los Angeles Chargers 27-24. The AFC West matchup averaged a 5.0 rating among adults 18-49, which was 9 percent better than last year’s full-season average across numerous networks.

The “Thursday Night Football” premiere was, by a large margin, watched more than any broadcast or cable TV show that same evening. “Young Sheldon” on CBS was No. 2 with just 3.5 million total viewers. On a Nielsen to Nielsen basis, we’re talking about an advantage of nearly 10 million viewers. Chargers-Chiefs viewers were also younger than usual; streaming tends to do that. “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video delivered an audience seven years younger than the linear NFL audience (median age 46 vs. 53). The audience was eight years younger than last year’s full-season average TNF audience (median age 54; “Thursday Night Football” was tri-cast on Fox, NFL Network, and Prime Video). Ahead of the release of these numbers, Jay Marine, global head of sports for Prime Video, sent the below to employees via email. IndieWire obtained a copy of the memo; italics are ours, bolding is all his. On Thursday night, we made history by delivering the first regular season game in our groundbreaking 11-year agreement with the NFL. And by every measure, “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video was a resounding success. From the stellar production of the game, to the quality of the stream customers watched at home, Prime Video proved we are among the very best in sports media.