Live NFL Viewing Up 24% On Prime Video, Reports Amazon Sports Exec — Cannes Lions

Streaming to live NFL on Prime Video has jumped 24% over the past year, the platform’s director of live sports production reported today.

Speaking at Cannes Lions Festival, Jared Stacy said it was clear that the immersive experience was finding a big audience, having picked up the exclusive rights in 2021 and launched Thursday Night Football last year.

“That shared experience, whether you’re at home or in the stadium, is what people crave,” Stacey said. “We’re out there at a live event, with 60 or 70,000 people for Thursday night football, and we’ll bring it to tens of millions every week.”

Stacy said it was clear that music in the live events space was equally “booming right now,” while Kirdis Postelle, Director, Global Content and Artist Marketing Amazon Music, added that she is intent on building a bridge between sports and music.

“What we’re really focused on is the intersection between music and sports, and building fandom around those moments,” Postelle said.

Postelle, who previously worked with Dr Dre at Aftermath Records and has been with Amazon for four years, reported audiences for live music streaming were going in the same direction as those for live sports streaming.

“The way that we’re meeting this moment is, we’re taking these live events and scaling them globally. Last year we started live-streaming festivals, and this year we’ll be live streaming 10 festivals. We’ve seen year on year our viewership has doubled.”

She added that Amazon Music is creating “front row experiences” to enjoy artists like Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar. “Whether fans are watching in real life or on live stream, they get the experience of being in the front row with the artist… All fans want to do is connect with the artists they love in a really meaningful way.”

Asked for her best advice for advertisers hoping to work with Amazon Music, Postelle said having the facility to jump speedily on cultural moments was critical to the success of a campaign.

“If you want to be part of these cultural music moments, these things happen really fast. I’d create some sort of quick reaction process, because the lead time to get a brand involved in a live stream is a little long. Create some quick reaction, so you can be part of the narrative.”

Earlier, Elon Musk addressed Cannes Lions on AI, free speech and the U.S. election.