Friday 28 September 2018

Twitch to broadcast NFL Thursday Night games for free




Tech giant Amazon-owned live video streaming platform Twitch, popularly known for its esports content, will broadcast NFL Thursday Night games for free
Beginning with Week 4’s matchup between the Vikings and Rams, Twitch will stream 11 of the 12 remaining Thursday Night Football broadcasts this season as part of Amazon’s $130 million deal with the NFL which runs through both the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
The games will be available for free on Twitch’s global video service apart from simulcast on Fox and Prime Video.
Under the terms of the current deal, Prime Video and Twitch will offer an array of interactive features for viewers, including being able to shop on Amazon for NFL merchandise via the ‘X-Ray’ experience on Fire TV devices.
NFL Thursday night football deal marks Amazon first foray into sports content and media rights acquisition after it struck a $50 million deal with National Football League (NFL) in April 2017.
The deal covered non-exclusive rights to stream portions of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games during the 2017 NFL season to Amazon Prime subscribers.
Acquired by Amazon in 2014, Twitch is available in 200 countries worldwide. A February report measured the service’s average viewership at 962,000 people. As of May 2018, it had 2.2 million broadcasters monthly and 15 million daily active users, with around a million average concurrent users.
Twitch’s first Thursday Night Football stream will debut tonight at 8:20 p.m. ET.

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