Thursday Night Football just got more competitive as Apple, Google, Amazon and Verizon are going head to head to take on the NFL’s highly lucrative sports franchise.
The U.S. football association announced that it was in “active discussions with prospective digital partners” for streaming rights to the same games, according to industry sources.
While the NFL didn’t specify which partners it was talking with, Variety reports that “multiple sources” confirmed that Apple, Amazon, Google, and Verizon were some of the top companies in talks.
The NFL plans to divide the broadcast of Thursday showdowns, which began as a brand in 2006, between CBS and NBC, with each corporation getting the rights to five games. CBS had the rights to eight games over the past two seasons, making this a bit of an upset.
As the NFL has split up broadcast rights, it’s possible that it will also divvy up the Thursday night football games across more than just one streaming partner. In addition, Variety reports, the league is considering even more groundbreaking stuff, like mixing in games played overseas.
As the Apple TV becomes more popular and useful, with CBS Sports streaming the Super Bowl this Sunday, it’s only a matter of time before more streaming will happen this way. Here’s hoping that Apple will at least be one of the partners chosen on the gridiron to stream Thursday Night Football soon.
Source: Variety
Via: Apple Insider
