Amazon’s first Thursday Night Football stream looked great

Carrying the weight of the world, Amazon’s first Exclusive Thursday Night Football Live still standing. Currently.

On Thursday, Amazon launched its new TNF game broadcast package, with the Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers playing a preseason game. The game itself was bad (Houston won 17-0, and both teams kept their best starters on the bench), but Amazon still passed the most important test: delivering a high-quality stream .

We’ll have to wait and see if this is the first real Amazon’s TNF on September 15th, but on first impressions, it’s a professional broadcast that should make fans feel right at home.

How is Amazon’s NFL stream different?

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Starting with the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Los Angeles Chargers on September 15, every Thursday night this season (and the next 10) will be available exclusively on Prime Video or Twitch. If you live in one of the two teams’ local markets, you can still see it over-the-air, but otherwise, you’ll have to keep streaming those games through Amazon. It’s not hard to find; fire up Prime Video on a Thursday night and you’ll see it first.

Amazon is trying something new as it gets exclusive rights to a prime-time game each week, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to test most of the coolest new features in this preseason showcase. One of the main features I wanted to try was the ability to bring up the X-ray view that Prime Video users are undoubtedly familiar with. When watching a TV show or movie, X-Ray lets you see which actors are in the scene you’re watching and gain insight into their careers. It’s perfect for those “oh wait, I know that guy!” moments.

For football, X-Ray will offer something completely different. You’ll be able to see real-time updated in-game stats, so if you need one of your quarterbacks to play well for your MyTEAM, you can X-ray his stats during games.No doubt I’ll be using it once it’s turned on during the regular season TNF game, but during the 49ers-Texans game, it’s not running, at least not yet Chromecast device I am using.

Amazon is also experimenting with alternative broadcasts, but again, these will have to wait for the regular season.Someone from a stunt-focused YouTube channel perfect buddy If you don’t like traditional football radio banter, they host a backup stream where they try stunts and that sort of stuff while commenting on the action of the game. Unfortunately, this didn’t work during the preseason, so I can’t say how effective it was, or how entertaining it was.

How does it compare to an actual TV?

NFL commissioners aren’t usually part of the broadcast, but the two guys on the left are.
Credit: Amazon’s Michael Lochizano/Getty Images

While I’m still a few weeks away from testing the unrelated Amazon TNF feature, Thursday night’s livestream answered yes Far The most important question I’ve had this season is: What will live streaming look like?

If Thursday’s game is any indication, then everything will be fine.sports via streaming Official app Might be a bit problematic because a lot, many The stream is locked for 30Hz playback. There’s not much technicality, which basically means the footage isn’t as smooth as when you’re watching it on a regular TV, it’ll be 60Hz.Watch highlights from the match The official YouTube channel of the NFL (video max frequency is 30Hz), you will notice it looks like Incorrect compared to TV broadcasting.

That’s not the case with Amazon’s Thursday night soccer live broadcast. It buffers to a beautiful, smooth, crisp 60Hz within seconds of opening the stream.I won’t say it looks Exactly It’s like on a TV, but it’s close enough that the few minutes of slight stuttering I noticed didn’t ruin my experience.I don’t have the ability to calculate the resolution exactly, but it looks Like it’s streaming at 1080p, which Amazon tells me is the target resolution for these streams.

In short, it looks pretty close to a TV broadcast I’m happy with. It took me a full season to really fit into the new radio crew, which included legendary announcer Al Michaels in the booth and longtime college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. But these are sounds I’ve listened to for many, many hours over the years, so the familiarity is comforting in a new streaming experience.

Really, that’s the whole production. From the pre-game programming and player interviews to the graphics and highlight packs during the game, everything feels very professional and traditional. Amazon isn’t reinventing the wheel here. When companies make their own games, you get the impression that the producers know what they’re doing.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the ad breaks are pretty much the same as what you’d see on Fox or NBC’s games. There are as many ads here as there are on TV, with the only notable difference being more ads for original shows and movies on Prime Video.

I think this is the correct way to handle this. Amazon offers traditional broadcasts that are close to what older generations are used to, while younger viewers can play Dude Perfect streams (or any other stream Amazon adds in the process). In this way, everyone is very happy. When fans settle down to watch their favorite teams, they have certain expectations about what they want to see, and Amazon seems to understand that.

Hopefully there won’t be any bandwidth issues after the real game starts.