There will be more NFL football on Amazon once the regular season comes to an end. According to Deadline, Amazon Prime Video has agreed to stream one NFL playoff game in January. It will be a wild-card game that will also air on CBS and Nickelodeon. ViacomCBS also has the rights to stream the game on CBS All Access, which will be known as Paramount+ once the playoffs begin.
Amazon already has a deal with the NFL where they stream the Thursday Night Football game each week. Earlier this year, Amazon signed a three-year contract extension to stream 11 Thursday Night Football games per year. It’s also possible Amazon could be in the mix to stream games on a regular basis as the league is currently negotiating with Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS as major contracts come up for renewal in the next year or two. Fox and CBS air NFC and AFC games, respectively. Fox also airs Thursday Night Football along with the NFL Network, while NBC airs Sunday Night Football. Monday Night Football is seen regularly on ESPN, but can also be shown on the team’s ABC local affiliate.
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Jason LaCanfora of CBS Sports said back the league would be on the verge of landing new streaming deals, and Disney is making a push to expand its NFL coverage by airing games on ABC regularly. He also noted that the “NFL is very comfortable with its over-the-air broadcast partners, including CBS, the sources said, and the Sunday afternoon packages are not expected to change dramatically.”
Amazon getting in on the playoff picture this season is good timing as the postseason has been expanded. Instead of 12 teams making the playoffs, 14 teams will be invited as the added two spots will be a wild-card team from the NFC and the AFC. Also, the No. 1 seed for each conference will get a bye instead of the top two. No. 2 seeds in the wild-card round will play the No. 7 seeds, which means there will be six wild-card games on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10. The NFL has been playing under a 12-team playoff field since 1999. Before that, the league only had 10 teams reach the playoffs from 1978 to 1989. It used an eight-time field from 1970 to 1977.
