(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc.’s streaming coverage of the NFL’s Black Friday game between the champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders drew an audience of 13.5 million viewers, a 41% increase from the company’s first such broadcast last year.
The game, which the Chiefs won by a score of 19-17, kicked off at 3 p.m. New York time, smack in the middle of the post-Thanksgiving shopping day. Last year’s 34-13 victory by the Miami Dolphins over the New York Jets, drew an audience of just 9.6 million.
Earlier, the NFL reported that its three Thanksgiving games on Thursday averaged 34.2 million viewers each, the highest ever for that holiday. They aired on CBS, Fox and NBC.
Amazon has become a big buyer of sports rights as part of a drive to attract subscribers, advertisers and shoppers to its Prime service. The league and Amazon began airing a Black Friday game last year.
To attract viewers, the world’s largest online retailer offered free access to the game for anyone with an Amazon account. The company’s regular NFL coverage on Thursday nights requires a Prime subscription, which costs $15 a month or $139 annually.
In 2022, Prime took over Thursday Night Football at a cost of more than $1 billion annually through 2033. That deal excluded NFL games typically played on broadcast TV on Thanksgiving Day.
Through early November, Amazon’s Thursday Night Football coverage has been averaging about 13 million viewers a game this season, according to Sports Media Watch. That’s below what Fox Corp. used to get on its broadcast network when it had the rights, but Amazon’s viewership has been improving.
Earlier this year, Amazon signed an 11-year, $19.8 billion deal with the NBA that kicks in next season to air games on Thursday and Friday nights, including Black Friday. It also has deals with the National Women’s Soccer League, WNBA and Nascar.
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