Word on the street is that there’s only one way to watch Thursday Night Football — which is on Amazon Prime Video. And that stands to reason in light of last year’s mega-deal in which the NFL sold Amazon the rights to Thursday Night Football for a cool billion bucks a year. The 11-year deal made Prime Video is the exclusive home of TNF from 2022 until 2033.
But the deal’s not as exclusive as you might think. It’s not like it’s the Bushwood Country Club or anything. We say that there are 4 and a half ways to watch because 2 of the ways don’t let you watch all the games at home. One method only lets you watch your home team’s games and the other makes you leave the house. But there are 4 legit ways (including Prime Video) to watch TNF live every week in your own home.
Read on for how to watch Thursday Night Football in 2023.
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Watch Thursday Night Football on Prime Video
One good thing about Amazon dropping 11 Bills on 1 game a week is that you’ll never have to wonder What channel is Thursday Night Football on? Because there’s not much to wonder about. Except for the Week 1 NFL Kickoff on NBC and Peacock, and the NFL Thanksgiving games spread around the broadcast networks, all Thursday football games are on Amazon Prime Video.
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In Week 12—when fans feast on the NFL tripleheader of Thanksgiving games—Thursday Night Football defies the space-time continuum and is played on Friday afternoon instead of Thursday.
This means that if you plan to watch Thursday Night Football every week this season, you’re primary option is to sign up for Amazon Prime—which includes Prime Video—or get Prime Video as a standalone service.
How much does Prime Video cost?
Seeing as Amazon Prime has almost 150 million subscribers in the US alone, there’s a very good chance you’re one of them. If not, and you do a lot of online shopping — and have no qualms about shopping on Amazon — signing up for Amazon Prime is a no-brainer.
Amazon Prime is $14.99/month or $139 per year.
Prime Video on its own is $8.99/month.
To watch every TNF game on Prime Video this season you’ll need to cover Week 2 through Week 17, which means September 14th to December 28th. So that’s 4 months in total, which means a monthly Prime membership will set you back $59.96 and a Prime Video standalone subscription will cost $35.96 for the whole slate of TNF games.
Can you record Thursday Night Football games?
You can record Thursday Night Football games, which also lets you pause, rewind, and fast-forward during the live game. Just go to the game details page and click Record Thursday Night Football. You should then see Recording enabled on the game page.
Once you’ve enabled recording, you’re set for the whole season of TNF games. You’ll be able to watch the reruns until the start of next season or until you cancel your subscription. If you don’t set the recording, you won’t get the games on-demand, so it’s best just to set it as soon as you sign up. Like CMC or Justin Jefferson in your fantasy lineup, it’s set and forget.
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Thursday Night Football on Twitch
The first alternative to watching TNF on Prime Video still might fall under the exclusive umbrella. In another instance when Amazon pulled out a billion dollars like it was pocket change found in the dirty laundry, it acquired streaming platform Twitch in 2014.
The good news is that you don’t need to sign up for anything. You can watch Thursday Night Football for free on Twitch without having a Twitch account or even an Amazon account. Just go to the Prime Video Twitch channel on Thursday night to watch the game.
You can watch it in web browsers or with the Twitch app on the following devices:
- Media players: Apple TV, Fire TV
- Phones & tablets: Android, iOS, Fire Tablet
- Smart TVs: Android TV, Fire TV
- Game consoles: Xbox, PlayStation
- Desktops & laptops: Web browsers
Thursday Night Football on NFL+
You can watch Thursday Night Football through the NFL mobile app with an NFL+ subscription. It’s only $6.99/month or $49.99/season for the standard plan.
The downside is that you can only watch live NFL games in the mobile app. If you get the NFL+ Premium plan, you can watch recorded games on a TV or computer, but for live games you’re locked into your mobile device.
NFL+ is an affordable streaming option for football fans. But don’t get too excited, because it’s not the be-all and end-all of sports streaming services.
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Thursday Night Football on NFL Game Pass
NFL Game Pass lets you watch every NFL game of the season. Every. Single. One. From preseason to Super Bowl, it’s got them all. And then some. But there’s a pretty huge caveat for American football fans.
Formerly called NFL Game Pass International, NFL Game Pass is for NFL fans who do NOT live in the United States, Canada, China, or Russia. It used to operated directly by the NFL, but it changed hands a couple of times and is now—as of the 2023 NFL season—part of DAZN for the next 10 years.
In case you’re unfamiliar with sports streamer DAZN, they’ve been going downhill for a while. You can only access your account in the country that you signed up in, so you can’t watch it while traveling. This also means you need a VPN to watch it in the US.
DAZN also takes a very active stance against VPNs, so you’ll need a reliable VPN if you want to watch NFL Game Pass in America.
There’s only one paid plan, and the price varies from country to country. Read the post below for all you need to know about the NFL streaming service.
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Thursday Night Football on local TV
When your local team plays in a Thursday Night Football game, that game will be aired by the local affiliate TV stations in markets of both the home and away teams. Therefore, if you’ve already cut the cord and ditched cable, you just need a live TV streaming service with whichever local channel broadcasts NFL games.
Can you still watch Thursday Night Football in bars?
Don’t worry! You can still watch Thursday Night Football at your favorite sports bar.
While Amazon became the first streaming service to nab the exclusive rights to a slate of NFL games, there was an outcry from bars and restaurants who do a good chunk of business with TNF on their TVs.
Enter DirecTV, the television BFF of bars and restaurants since 1994. The TV programming distributor struck a deal in 2022 to show Prime’s TNF broadcasts in 300,000+ establishments across the country. The games are on DirecTV channel 9526, and bar-goers and gamblers can watch Thursday Night Football at their favorite watering holes without worry.
Thursday Night Football Schedule for 2023
The schedule to watch every Thursday Night Football game in 2023 is as follows:
| Week | Date (2023) | Away | Home | Time (EDT/EST) | Where to Watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 07-Sep | Detroit Lions | Kansas City Chiefs | 8:20 p.m. | NBC/Peacock |
| 2 | 14-Sep | Minnesota Vikings | Philadelphia Eagles | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 3 | 07-Sep | New York Giants | San Fransisco 49ers | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 4 | 28-Sep | Detroit Lions | Green Bay Packers | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 5 | 05-Oct | Chicago Bears | Washington Commanders | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 6 | 12-Oct | Denver Broncos | Kansas City Chiefs | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 7 | 19-Oct | Jacksonville Jaguars | New Orleans Saints | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 8 | 26-Oct | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Buffalo Bills | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 9 | 02-Nov | Tennessee Titans | Pittsburgh Steelers | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 10 | 09-Nov | Carolina Panthers | Chicago Bears | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 11 | 16-Nov | Cincinnati Bengals | Baltimore Ravens | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 12 | 24-Nov | Miami Dolphins | New York Jets | 2:00 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 13 | 30-Nov | Seattle Seahawks | Dallas Cowboys | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 14 | 07-Dec | New England Patriots | Pittsburgh Steelers | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 15 | 14-Dec | LA Chargers | Las Vegas Raiders | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 16 | 21-Dec | New Orleans Saints | LA Rams | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 17 | 28-Dec | New York Jets | Cleveland Browns | 8:15 p.m. | Prime Video |
| 18 | 07-Jan 2024 | Chicago Bears | Green Bay Packers | TBA | Prime Video |
Final thoughts on watching TNF
If you’re serious about NFL football, you want to watch the first game of the week. You can watch TNF for free on Twitch, which is the best option if you don’t want to pay anything.
However, if you want to pause and rewind, or record games to watch later, watch live games on a TV rather than your phone, and not have to deal with a VPN, signing up for Prime Video (or Amazon Prime) is the way to go.
If you’re looking for how to stream NFL games on the other days of the week, check out our detailed guide on How to Watch NFL Games Live Without Cable.
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