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Amazon Prime Scores Subscriber Win With Thursday Night Football

The company hit a record number of Prime subscriptions for a 3-hour period, according to an internal email.

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Amazon Prime's broadcast of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video last week reportedly scored the internet retailer a record number of Prime subscriptions for a 3-hour period, beating its records for Prime Day, Cyber Monday and Black Friday.

"By every measure, 'Thursday Night Football' on Prime Video was a resounding success," Jay Marine, Prime Video VP and global head of sports, said in an email seen by CNET. "Our first exclusive TNF broadcast delivered the most watched night of primetime in the US in the history of Prime Video."

Amazon has been streaming NFL games for four years, but the games were also available to watch on Fox or the NFL Network. In 2021, Amazon locked up the national rights to the NFL's Thursday Night Football games, the biggest sports deal with a streaming service so far. Last week's game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers attracted a record prime-time audience to Prime Video, according to Marine's email.

"While we're still waiting for official Nielsen ratings, our measurement shows that the audience numbers exceeded all of our expectations for viewership," he said.

The deal has apparently given Amazon an edge in the so-called streaming wars. As streaming's popularity has grown with consumers, so too has competition for their subscription dollars. In the past two years, a stream of media giants and tech heavyweights have launched their own rivals to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, with new services including Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, HBO Max and Peacock.