The game of big-money musical broadcasting chairs is apparently winding to a conclusion.
Peter King reports in his latest Football Morning in America column that Amazon has “settled on” Kirk Herbstreit as the analyst for Thursday Night Football. The more accurate description may be “settled for,” given that the likes of Troy Aikman, Sean McVay, and John Lynch have passed on the job.
The question now becomes the identity of Herbstreit’s partner. As noted by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, talks between Amazon and Al Michaels have been stalled at the one-yard line for a while. The hiring of Herbstreit presumably will either get the deal done, or blow it up.
Marchand points out that Michaels and Herbstreit have no relationship. That’s better than having a bad one. And there’s no reason to think the two men won’t get along.
Still, if Michaels decides to pass on Amazon and go, for example, to Monday nights with Aikman, what will Amazon do? Well, if ESPN is going to let Herbstreit pull double duty between Thursday nights for the NFL and Saturdays for college, why not keep the relationship in place between Herbstreit and Chris Fowler?
That would definitely make it easier for Herbstreit, since he wouldn’t be dealing with two different partners, two days apart, week after week.
Hovering over these decisions continues to be a very real uncertainty as to the size of the national audience for the Thursday games on Amazon. Although the games will be broadcast on local over-the-air networks in the markets of the teams that are playing, the rest of the country will have to: (1) have Amazon Prime; and (2) use it for watching the games.
In 2017, the NFL did a Yahoo-only stream of a Ravens-Jaguars Sunday morning game from England. How many watched? The NFL never released the numbers. And all that that implies.
Five years later, and with the Thursday night habit fully formed (not to mention the ongoing spread of legalized gambling), Amazon likely will generate a significant audience. But it probably won’t be close, at least at first, to the numbers generated by Fox.
Then again, for the money Amazon is paying to its broadcasters, who cares? For eight figures annually, many would happily play to an audience of one.
