The NFL has renewed an exclusive digital-streaming deal with internet company Amazon for the American football league’s Thursday Night Football package.
The global deal will cover the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons of the NFL.
The Reuters news agency said that Amazon agreed to pay about $65m (€54m) per season for the rights – a 30-per-cent increase on the previous deal.
Amazon Prime will stream the 11 Thursday Night Football games per season that are broadcast by the Fox network. These contests will also be simulcast by the league-owned NFL Network.
The action will be available to more than 100 million Amazon Prime members worldwide across 200 countries.
The NFL and Amazon will also “collaborate on additional NFL content opportunities and enhanced fan viewing experiences, including making the games available on Twitch’s interactive social video service”, the league said.
Video-sharing service YouTube and social media platform Twitter were also in contention for the rights, according to reports.
Amazon became a Thursday Night Football partner for the first time ahead of the 2017-18 season, with Amazon Prime becoming the exclusive partner to deliver a live OTT digital stream of the package of fixtures worldwide.
In January, Fox was awarded the broadcast rights for Thursday Night Football – between weeks four and 15 in each season, excluding Thanksgiving – for the next five years, from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
All Thursday Night Football games will kick off at 8.20pm eastern time.