Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) runs the ball in for a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium, Oct. 2, 2022.
Kim Klement | USA Today Sports | Reuters
Amazon will stream the first ever Black Friday NFL game in November 2023, the company revealed in a joint announcement with the National Football League on Tuesday.
The game — which will take place on at 3 p.m. ET on Nov. 24, 2023, — is the first NFL competition to take place on the day after Thanksgiving, which itself is a traditionally big day for NFL games. The teams for the Black Friday game will be announced along with the rest of the matchups in next season’s NFL schedule.
The announcement places the game on the key discount holiday for brick-and-mortar retailers, and the game could drive shopper traffic away from stores and towards Amazon. Amazon provides online discounts on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday of that holiday weekend.
“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,” said Jay Marine, Global Head of Sports at Prime Video.
Even without an NFL game to deal with, Black Friday this year is already expected to underperform past years. Amazon’s move may only exacerbate that weakness, which has been growing as stores increasingly spread out promotions across the holiday season.
The announcement lauded Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” broadcast, which began this year and is averaging 10.8 million weekly viewers, according to Nielson. That viewership is 48% higher than the viewership of “Thursday Night Football” in 2021, according to Tuesday’s release.
–CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.