Michaels is now Prime at NBC. After his 11th Super Bowl, Michaels’ contract with NBC expired last month.
Michaels stated Wednesday that “this is the frontier of sports television” and that being a part in the launch at this stage in my career was both exciting and stimulating. “The NFL is the king unscripted TV, and I look forward to joining Kirk to bring more dramatic episodes to fans on Thursday nights this autumn.”
Herbstreit has been with ESPN since 1996. He will continue to be the network’s leading college football analyst and will also do NFL games for Prime. ESPN announced Wednesday that Herbstreit has signed a multiyear extension.
Prime Video announced that Fred Gaudelli would be Prime Video’s executive producer of “Thursday Night Football”. Gaudelli will continue to serve as an executive at NBC.
Marie Donoghue (Vice President, Amazon Global Sports Video) stated that Kirk and Al bring unparalleled experience to our historic Thursday Night Football game broadcasts. This is as we kickoff our new groundbreaking agreement with the NFL.
Amazon will pay $1B per season to host the games for 11 consecutive years. Prime Video will host its first regular-season match on September 15. After the draft, the NFL will announce its schedule in May.
Prime Video will broadcast 15 regular-season and one preseason games. The games will be available on the stations of the participating teams, the same as when they are on ESPN or NFL Network.
NBC will broadcast the season’s opening game and Thanksgiving night. Two games will be played on Saturday, and 14 more on Sunday in the final week of the regular season.
Prime Video continues to shift the spotlight on top announcing NFL teams with NFL packages.
ESPN announced last week that Troy Aikman and Joe Buck will be calling “Monday Night Football”, after having been Fox’s No. Since 2002, the No. 1 team.
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Michaels will be calling “Sunday Night Football” as Cris Collinsworth goes to Prime.
Rob Hyland, who previously produced Notre Dame games as well as NBC’s “Football Night in America”, studio show, will replace Gaudelli to be the lead producer for the Sunday night games.