NEW YORK & BRISTOL, Conn.—The 2020 NFL season is getting ready to enter its most exciting time, and there are some new plans for how fans will be able to watch these important games.
First, the NFL released an update to its Week 16 schedule, announcing that three games will be played on Saturday, Dec. 26. The first two games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Detroit Lions and the Miami Dolphins vs. the Las Vegas Raiders, will take broadcast exclusively on the NFL Network. The third game, the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Arizona Cardinals, will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video and Twitch.
This is the first game this season that Amazon Prime Video has had exclusively; while the weekly Thursday Night Football games are available on Amazon Prime Video, they are also normally broadcast on Fox.
All of these games will be available through all NFL digital properties, the teams’ mobile properties and Yahoo Sports mobile. All of the team’s local stations will also carry the games.
The other announcement of new NFL broadcast strategies came from ESPN, which announced it will use its MegaCast production for its coverage of the NFL Wildcard game in January, providing a multichannel experience. This will include, for the first time, the teenage-targeted Freeform network.
ESPN and ABC will simulcast the traditional telecast; ESPN 2 and Freeform will produce their own viewing experiences, including separate commentators and format, which will be announced in the coming weeks. ESPN Deportes will air the Spanish-language offering.
In addition, ESPN announced that ABC will simulcast two Monday Night Football contests in December—the Buffalo Bills vs. the 49ers on Dec. 7 and the Bills vs. the New England Patriots on Dec. 28.
