Amazon will help make a bit of sports broadcasting history on Thursday.
The tech giant has hired Andrea Kremer and Hannah Storm to commentate all 11 of its Thursday Night Football streams on Prime Video this season, starting with the Rams vs. Vikings game this week. It’s the first time two female announcers will call an entire NFL game.
“Teaming up with Hannah and Amazon for this is truly special,” Kremer said in a statement. “Hannah is a brilliant journalist and she has been a friend for many years. With decades of experience as storytellers, we will be bringing a different voice and viewpoint to covering the game of football.”
Sports fans are likely familiar with Kremer and Storm, as both boast impressive broadcasting resumes. Kremer is a chief correspondent for NFL Network who was recently honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. Storm is a long-time ESPN SportsCenter anchor who has nearly three decades of sports broadcasting experience.
This is Amazon’s second consecutive year streaming Thursday Night Football games in partnership with the NFL. Amazon took the reigns after Twitter’s one-year shot at the effort in 2016 and will stream games for the 2018 and and 2019 seasons. Last year’s deal was for a reported $50 million.
Future of live sports? How Amazon streamed NFL games to 200 countries and 600 types of devices
The NFL streaming deal is part of Amazon’s growing video arm that includes the company’s Prime video library; its Amazon Studios production unit; and other sports-related live streaming deals. Amazon spent $4.5 billion in 2017 on video content as it competes with Netflix, Hulu, and others in the streaming industry.
It’s also part of Amazon’s continued push into sports. It has several other live streaming deals with top leagues around the world and produces the All or Nothing sports documentaries available to Prime members. Amazon also recently hired longtime ESPN executive Marie Donoghue.
The NFL streams, powered by Amazon Web Services, will be available to more than 100 million Amazon Prime members worldwide in more than 200 countries and territories on the Prime Video app for TVs, game consoles, and connected devices, which includes Amazon Fire TV, mobile devices and online. It will also stream on Amazon-owned Twitch. There are multiple audio options available in addition to commentary from Kremer and Storm, including a feed from the Fox TV broadcast with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman and two others in Spanish and U.K. English.
Across 10 games last season when GeekWire checked in on the technology behind the effort, Amazon attracted more than 17 million viewers, or an average of 1.7 million per game.
