Amazon announces they will offer ‘Black Friday’ NFL game free for all viewers

The NFL has never met a holiday they aren’t willing to invade to help expand their ever-growing brand.

Thanksgiving? Yep.

Christmas? Sure.

New Year’s? You get the picture.

With all major holidays covered, there was an unofficial holiday the league decided they wanted to impede upon. That would be none other than Black Friday. That’s right, the NFL is going to have a game the day after Thanksgiving, for all those who don’t want to go out and spend their money.

With this being a first for the NFL, a logical question was who would cover this game? After all, CBS, FOX Sports and NBC all have games on Thanksgiving day, so Amazon, who loses a game on Thanksgiving, decided they would be the organization to take over this new slot.

Not an Amazon Prime member? Have no fear, you’ll get to see the game too!

Amazon will provide free access for all fans to the first-ever NFL Black Friday game, streaming exclusively on Prime Video November 24.

Prime Video will kick off the 2023 holiday season with an early present for NFL fans, providing free access to the first Black Friday NFL game—even if you’re not a Prime member yet. The game will stream exclusively on Prime Video November 24, and is expected to kick off at 3 p.m. EST.

Of course, the NFL and Amazon are all about giving fans a glimpse of what they could get on a weekly basis if they were to become an Amazon Prime member. Nonetheless, this is a big opportunity for both Amazon and the NFL.

“We’re excited to expand our relationship with the NFL and build a new holiday tradition for our customers with the first Black Friday NFL game,” said Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video and global head of Sports. “We’re so very proud of our Thursday Night Football production and all the teams in front of and behind the camera. As families look to spend time together over the holiday weekend, we are excited to provide an opportunity for everyone to enjoy this new day of NFL action.”

It was just last year when Amazon was the highest bidder for the Thursday Night Football package, and it was deemed a success after the first year.

The exclusive Black Friday game marks a further extension of Prime Video’s relationship with the NFL, and offers a free sample of the benefits that come with Prime membership. The service took over as the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football in 2022, and over the course of 15 games, presented the most streamed NFL contests in history, attracted audiences that were eight years younger than NFL audiences on the linear channels, and regularly topped all competing programming across broadcast and cable.

For those wondering, the crew for Thursday Night Football will be as follows:

Charissa Thompson will host the pregame show alongside Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Richard Sherman, Andrew Whitworth, Taylor Rooks, and Michael Smith. When game coverage commences, Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, and Kaylee Hartung will cover the on-field action.

This isn’t the only streaming service the NFL is getting involved with, especially considering how they recently came to terms with YouTubeTV for the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package so many displaced fans rely on to see their favorite team play week-in and week-out.

Will you be watching this Black Friday? Let us know in the comment section below, and be sure to stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the rest of the NFL offseason.