Al Michaels and other broadcasters are ready to enter Amazon technology as football pioneers – GeekWire

It wasn’t that long ago that Al Michaels had no idea what streaming was. But for the veteran broadcaster, joining the broadcast team is an opportunity to try new things, winning over NFL fans with a high-quality production for Amazon Prime Video’s exclusive coverage of “Thursday Night Football.”

“I find it exciting because all my friends and my children and grandchildren think this is the best thing in the world,” Michael said Tuesday in a video interview with the media and other new members of Amazon. TNF group.

Although Michaels and longtime producer Fred Gaudelli, analyst partner Kirk Herbstreit and sideline reporter Kaylee Harting are headed to a different platform inspired by Amazon’s technological expertise and deep pockets, Michaels says he has no plans to reinvent the wheel. Broadcasting a football game.

“We’re not going to do anything crazy. Maybe the interactivity is something a little different than a normal broadcast,” Michael said. “I said to someone, ‘They’re going to think we’re coming from the Rockies in a covered wagon. I said we’re coming up on broadband rockies. We are pioneers.

This season, Amazon will be the first streaming service to offer a national broadcast package exclusively with the NFL. The Prime Video deal runs for 11 years and could cost Amazon $1 billion per season. Sportico previously reported that Amazon doubled the $660 million Fox paid for “TNF.”

Amazon’s move is part of a larger trend among tech giants to become major players in acquiring broadcast rights to live sporting events. This is a “terror for media companies,” The New York Times reported, as tech companies like Apple and Google “aren’t playing by the same financial rules.”

Michaels and Herbstreit, ESPN’s Emmy-winning college football analyst, officially signed on in March to work on an off-broadcast screening game together, and their first real streaming test comes this Thursday with a preseason game at 4pm PT. It features the Houston Texans and the San Francisco 49ers.

The “TNF” regular season officially kicks off on September 15 with a matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Games will be streamed on the Amazon.com homepage, the Prime Video app, Amazon-owned Twitch and over-the-air television channels in two home markets for competing teams.

Amazon has announced a new deal with DirecTV to stream games to bars and restaurants.

Amazon already holds streaming rights as part of a three-pronged deal with Fox and the NFL Network, so Prime Video has a track record of knowing what it needs to bring in fans. As an exclusive supplier, Amazon is promising new pregame, halftime and postgame shows, as well as alternative foods such as pairings with Dude Perfect.

Interactive features like X-rays, alternate streams and Next Gen Stats are a mainstay for “TNF” on Prime. And Gaudelli, a 24-time Emmy-winning producer who has worked with Michaels for 21 years, stopped by some of the extra technology on hand.

“We’ll have two sky cameras, so we’ll have a normal sky camera and a high sky camera,” Gaudelli said. “I think we have 13 high-speed ultra-slow-mo cameras. We will have the kick technology that we pioneered on ‘Sunday Night Football’. It will be a very, very strong product.

Amazon’s VP of global sports video, Marie Donoghue, said Amazon is an “innovation-first company” and that’s how Prime Video approaches its distribution.

“We have some surprises planned for you,” said Donoghue, adding that the streaming platform offers a great opportunity to engage fans with information and highlights and endless choice. “Not everyone wants to see the game the same way. We are not choosing one type of fan to serve, we are trying to serve all fans.

Here are a few more highlights from Tuesday’s news conference:

• “When it comes to marketing, the entire Amazon company is behind the marketing effort. I don’t know if they’ve gotten any Amazon boxes in the mail yet, but they’re promoting ‘Thursday Night Football’ or ‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings.’ – Marie Donoghue
• “Some things Fred [Gaudelli] It talks about highlights and added highlights that you show on the main stream, a lot of our option is to really put those types of controls and options in the viewer’s hands. So what you see Fred and his team doing on the air can be replayed through X-ray an indefinite number of times. – Marie Donoghue
• “NFL fans have very realistic expectations when they turn on the television. The best people in television and sports television work on the NFL, and when it comes to prime time, I think their expectations are even higher. And if you don’t come up with a real quality show, they probably won’t come back.” – Fred Gaudelli
• “I think a lot of people are curious because it’s a new template and a new platform for what’s going to happen. We just want to put on a very high quality show. Come one, come all of you.” – Al Michael