Amazon’s second season of exclusivity for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package on Prime Video ended on a far more positive note than the first season.
Per a Tuesday release from Prime Video, Thursday Night Football averaged 11.86 million viewers in 2023, an increase of 24% from 2022.
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That data does not include viewership for the NFL’s inaugural Black Friday game, which aired on Prime Video and averaged 9.61 million viewers.
Viewership for Prime Video’s pre and postgame programming also saw similar growth. TNF Tonight was up 24% this season to 1.39 million viewers, TNF Kickoff was up 31% to 5.27 million viewers, TNF Postgame was up 19% to 3.96 million viewers, and TNF Nightcap was up 10% to 1.85 million viewers.
Throughout the season, TNF was up double digits on a week-to-week basis. That streak ended in Week 15 with the Raiders’ blowout win over the Chargers before rebounding in Week 16. Week 17 viewership has not been released at the time of this writing.
TNF also set new record highs for viewership on Prime Video twice in 2023. Eagles-Vikings in Week 2 initially set the mark in Week 2 with 15.05 million viewers, only to be surpassed in Week 13 by Seahawks-Cowboys with 15.26 million viewers.
After TNF’s debut season in 2022, there was a lot of discussion about whether the season could be labeled a success. While Prime Video’s audience for Thursday Night Football was much smaller than it was on Fox in previous seasons, many other demographics pointed Prime Video’s audience in a different, more positive light.
Those demographics remain positive: the average age of TNF’s audience was 48.5 (47 last year), nearly seven years younger than the NFL’s average on linear TV. Viewership in the 18-34 demographic increased to 2.40 million viewers (14% up from 2022) and comprised 20% of TNF’s audience (a slight drop from 22% last season). The average for the NFL on linear TV is 14%. Prime Video’s audience also had a higher average income than the NFL’s linear audience, averaging $101,000 annually compared to $87,300. Last season, the Prime Video audience had an average income of $98,500.
Ultimately, Prime Video and the NFL must be thrilled with the second year of Thursday Night Football airing exclusively on the Amazon-owned platform. If year three follows the same pattern, they’ll be ecstatic.
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.