The NFL Films division of the American football league has partnered with internet company Amazon to form a new reality programming series, while commissioner Roger Goodell has reported strong levels of interest in the package of digital rights to its Thursday Night Football games.
The All or Nothing series will premiere exclusively on Amazon Video and aims to offer fans a glimpse into the week-to-week developments in the lives of players, coaches and owners of an NFL franchise during the course of the regular season.
The inaugural season of All or Nothing will feature the 2015 Arizona Cardinals team that captured the NFC West title and advanced to the NFC Championship Game. The Amazon Unscripted Series will premiere on Amazon Video later this summer.
All eight, hour-long episodes of All or Nothing: A Season with the Arizona Cardinals will be available to all Amazon customers via the Amazon Video app for televisions, connected devices including Fire TV, and mobile devices or online.
Amazon has also been heavily linked to the Thursday Night Football rights that are on the market and Goodell has admitted that the process of awarding a contract has been delayed by the levels of interest shown.
The NFL last month struck new two-season deals for its Thursday Night Football rights package, continuing its partnership with CBS while also adding rival US network NBC as a partner as it seeks a digital contract for what it says will be a “unique tri-cast” model.
The new broadcast deals will expand Thursday Night Football for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Both CBS and NBC will broadcast five games, growing the package to 10 broadcast games in 2016 and 2017 from eight in 2014 and 2015.
Speaking yesterday (Wednesday) following the 2016 NFL Annual Meeting, Goodell said: “We’ve been spending a great deal of time on this. In fact, we had a couple recent conversations with some of our potential partners. The interest has been very strong. There are multiple ways in which different digital companies want to participate in this, the value that they can bring to our consumers, the experiences that we think we could initiate through this relationship.
“What we’re trying to just figure out is how to best make that a great consumer experience and who the right partner is that can deliver on that. Again, the number of partners has been so strong that it’s taken a little bit longer than we actually thought, but that’s a good problem for us.”