The long-rumored NFL Black Friday game is officially a go.
Per a release on Tuesday, the first Black Friday game will take place next year with a kickoff time of 3 PM ET on November 24th. It’ll exclusively be streamed on Prime Video. Here’s more from the release.
“Thanksgiving is synonymous with football, and we’re excited to give our fans another day of NFL action during this holiday weekend,” said Hans Schroeder, chief operating officer for NFL Media. “Amazon is uniquely positioned to partner with us for this game as ‘Black Friday’ is one of the most important days of the year for their business.”
“Thursday Night Football has already proven tremendously successful on Prime Video, delivering millions of viewers every week, and we’re excited to expand our relationship with the NFL with the inaugural ‘Black Friday’ game, starting next year,” said Jay Marine, global head of sports, Prime Video. “’Black Friday’ is the unofficial start of the holiday season, and we’re thrilled to kick it off with a gift for football fans across the country with this new game.”
“We are gratified by the NFL’s support, and by the incredible reaction we’ve had from viewers to our broadcast, and are thrilled to give fans another game with Al, Kirk, Kaylee, and the entire TNF crew on ‘Black Friday’ in 2023,” said Marie Donoghue, vice president of global sports video, Amazon.
Unsurprisingly, a matchup has yet to be announced.
Amazon wanted a Black Friday game for the 2022 season, and the NFL eventually greenlit the date. However, the 2022 debut was pushed back to 2023, and the official announcement has finally come.
Given the NFL’s dominance of Thanksgiving, adding a fourth game airing on a different media partner a day later makes sense. Now, we’ll get an afternoon doubleheader on CBS and Fox, a primetime game on NBC, and a mid-afternoon hangover game on Black Friday. It’ll be interesting to see how networks counterprogram this game, because Black Friday has traditionally hosted a bunch of college basketball and college football over various networks (over a dozen college football games both last year and this year, and an overwhelming amount of college basketball games). Will CBS, ESPN, and Fox grant the NFL dominance over that late afternoon window, or just hope viewers are in the mood for some college sports too?
