Amazon, Apple & Google vie to live stream National Football League matches

Variety first revealed late yesterday that NFL is looking to sell streaming rights for Thursday Night Football.

While both Google and Amazon have boosted their streaming via the highly popular YouTube app and Amazon Prime, respectively, Apple on the contrary has struggled to gain any mass traction as yet.

Earlier this month, the National Football League announced that it had secured TV broadcast deals with both CBS and NBC for Thursday Night Football, but that leaves a major market untapped. While unveiling the TV deals, the league said it was “in active discussions with prospective digital partners” for global streaming rights for the same games.

Apple and Google trying to get in on the action isn’t surprising.

Citing industry sources, the Variety specifically mentions Apple, Amazon, Google and Verizon to purportedly place in their offers for the digital rights.

“We are continuing to make Thursday Night Football bigger and better”, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

“We … look forward to expanding with a digital partner for what will be a unique tri-cast on broadcast, cable, and digital platforms”, said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a statement.

For Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the value of “Thursday Night Football” in the USA might seem somewhat diluted, given that those games will already be available to viewers on NBC and CBS.

More worrisome is the NFL’s plan not only to simulcast the games on the NFL Network and on Verizon’s mobile network but to find an OTT provider to stream the games. Amazon has the $99-per-year Prime program, which includes unlimited video streaming of licensed and original series and films from Amazon Studios.

Reps from Amazon, Apple and Google declined to comment. With rights fees per game going up, but the number of games going down, Barclays figured CBS will come out “slightly ahead” under the new deal.