The one-year agreement is valued at around $50 million, according to people familiar with the matter. That price tag represents a fivefold increase over the NFL’s agreement with Twitter Inc. for the same number of games last season.
Amazon’s NFL games will be available only to its Amazon Prime members, who pay $99 a year for free, two-day shipping and access to music, movies and TV shows. Amazon has more than 60 million Prime members worldwide, according to analyst estimates.
“We’re focused on bringing our customers what they want to watch, Prime members want the NFL,” said Amazon Senior Vice President Jeff Blackburn. The large audience that the NFL attracts will also give Amazon a promotional platform for its other content, he added.
Amazon hopes that they can uniquely target fans with sports gear, a way that the company could potentially justify forking over high fees for big-ticket sports. Mr. Blackburn declined to talk specifically about how Amazon might use the NFL to sell merchandise.
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