3 things we learned from Amazon Prime’s TNF debut
By Scott Rogust
Thursday Night Football debuted on Amazon Prime on Sept. 15. Here are three things we learned in the streaming service’s first game.
The very first Thursday Night Football game of the 2022 season took place on Sept. 15, as the Kansas City Chiefs took on the Los Angeles Chargers. The game did not air on national television like in years past. Instead, it was streamed through Amazon Prime Video, after the company reached an exclusive agreement with the NFL.
As has been done in the past, whenever a sports game debuts on a new streaming service, the performance is evaluated. From the audio side of things, to the visual.
Here are three things we learned in the debut of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video based off of the reactions from those on Twitter.
Bad acoustics
One area of concern that was brought up was the acoustics of the stadium. As Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports brings up, there are complaints about the sound of the stadium not coming across on the broadcast.
One criticism I’ve heard of the @amazon #NFL broadcast tonight: the stadium acoustics feel weird. Not crisp. The sound of the stadium isn’t really coming through the way it does on NBC’s primetime games. Between snaps it feels dead. It makes the broadcast feel a little lethargic.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) September 16, 2022
Like with any broadcast, they can fine tune things over time. Considering that it is the first regular-season game that they are doing live on Thursday night, it is a learning experience.
No more changing channels easily/avoiding commercials for fans, causing an uproar
We mean, this was quite obvious from the get-go.
If there is one complaint among fans of Thursday Night Football, is that they can not change channels to catch another game going on or another program. That was a given, considering games are airing on an individual streaming service/application.
So, fans are realizing that they have to sit through the commercials, or spend a lengthy amount of time switching from streaming service to streaming service, or streaming service to cable provider.
Are you watching more TNF commercials vs last year because it’s hard to flip channels?
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 16, 2022
The worst part about the game being on Amazon Prime is you can't flip channels throughout the game #TNF
— Josh Herritt (@jdherritt) September 16, 2022
https://twitter.com/JustinLever3/status/1570564789268779008?s=20&t=OHUArM3cGFLXbFbKO0X07w
Will be interesting to see how the ratings compare (if a comparison can even be drawn). I would normally watch TNF off and on throughout the game (unless my team was playing). But with it being on Amazon, even though I subscribe, I won’t tune in because I can’t flip channels.
— Katelyn Costello (@kcostello1232) September 16, 2022
TNF gotta fix this...I wanna change channels and I gotta go all the way out the damn app.
— Dame (@dame_dion) September 16, 2022
Great picture quality
While there has been some negative feedback on the Thursday Night Football broadcast on Amazon, one area that has been a positive is the picture quality. When the feed is running at 100-percent, the picture quality is great.
Of course, there will be some quality dips here and there, much like with any streaming service. But the picture does look better than it does on the cameras from television networks.
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