Amazon’s latest push to control every industry on earth is now branching out to live-content advertising, with the e-commerce monolith looking to charge $2.8 million for 30-second ads for NFL games next season, according to a report from Reuters.
The Seattle-based company announced in April it had payed $50 million for the rights to stream Thursday night NFL games to its Amazon Prime customers next season. The deal is a major jump from the $10 million Twitter paid the league to stream its games last season.
Despite the heavy price tag, the nearly $3 million ad charge has Amazon poised to do what it does best: rake in revenue. There were nearly 70 30-second ads per NFL game last season, according to data from Business Insider. If that trend continues for Amazon, it would pull in nearly $200 million for every Thursday game.
At the same time, the deal will help Amazon attract new Prime users — which costs subscribers $99 a year — as well as funnel its existing members back into its e-commerce ecosystem. With that in mind, the $50 million seems like an absolute steal for Jeff Bezos and Co.
Advertisers will look to see if Amazon’s massive platform can generate more eyeballs for Thursday games. Twitter grabbed less than 300,000 viewers on average for its slate of games last season — and charged its clients anywhere from $2-8 million for ad packages, according to Reuters. For comparison, ads for NFL games on CBS and NBC, two of its television partners, run between $550,000 to $590,000 for 30-second ads.
Amazon did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.