Amazon Secures Rights For NFL Playoff Game: Report

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has reportedly secured the rights to one of the two new wild card games for the 2020 season.

What Happened: The NFL told league owners Amazon had secured the rights to one playoff game, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The amount paid by Amazon is expected to be “significantly higher than the per game range” of the regular season Thursday Night Football games Amazon streams.

Amazon will share the rights to the Jan. 10, 2021 game with ViacomCBS Inc (NASDAQ: VIAC), which will air the game on CBS and Nickelodeon along with its streaming platform, according to WSJ.

ViacomCBS paid $70 million for the rights to the game. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) paid $75 million for the other new wild card game to stream on its broadcast channel and Peacock streaming platform.

Related Link: The 2020 NBA Finals Ratings Are Historically Bad. But Why?

Why It’s Important: Amazon has pushed into sports content and streams 11 Thursday Night Football games a season on its Amazon Prime streaming network.

Amazon renewed its NFL deal earlier this year for three additional seasons with an expected price point of at least $75 million.

The NFL will see its Monday Night Football deal with Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) unit ESPN end at the end of the 2021 season. Deals with CBS and NBC finish at the end of the 2022 season.

NFL ratings are down slightly to last year as other sports seeing double-digit drops. Since the start of the season, 18 of the top 20 most-watched telecasts on broadcast networks were NFL games.

AMZN Price Action: Shares of Amazon closed down 2% to $3,361.67 on Wednesday.