How Amazon Misread the NFL Ad Market

A Thursday Night Football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New York Jets. Photo by Getty.

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Last summer, advertising representatives for a national pizza chain in the U.S. met with Amazon ad executives to negotiate a potential sponsorship deal for Amazon Prime Video’s broadcast of “Thursday Night Football.” Amazon executives asked the pizza chain for commitments of up to $12 million for the full season, double what the chain wanted to spend, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Amazon’s aggressive demand reflected its confidence in the popularity of NFL games, which are routinely the most-watched shows on broadcast television. But its streaming of NFL games on Thursday nights last season ended up averaging 41% fewer viewers than the league had averaged for Thursday night games in the 2021 season when they aired on the Fox network, the NFL Network and Prime Video. By the time last season concluded, the pizza chain had paid just half of Amazon’s original price, partly as a result of the ratings shortfall.