Amazon Cruises Past Q3 Estimates, Touts 25% Viewership Gain For ‘Thursday Night Football’

Amazon reported third-quarter results well ahead of Wall Street forecasts, with total revenue at $143.1 billion and earnings per share of 94 cents.

The revenue number, up 13% from the same period a year ago, soared past analysts’ consensus estimate of $133.4 billion. Analysts had expected EPS of 55 cents.

Shares in the tech giant have gained 40% in 2023 to date. After slumping in recent sessions, they perked up in after-hours trading on the earnings news.

The quarter included the start of Year 2 of a major streaming initiative: exclusive coverage of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football franchise. After muted tune-in compared with broadcast TV in its debut year, the Amazon games have posted healthy double-digit gains over 2022 levels. The earnings release touted a 25% gain for the current season over last year’s viewership, with average viewership of 12.9 million. The median age of those tuning in is 47, according to the company, which is seven years younger than the NFL’s audience on linear TV.

Prime Video has also touted the value of NFL games for advertisers, putting its weight behind a Black Friday game on the day after Thanksgiving, always a peak year for shopping both in physical stores and online.

Advertising Services, a line item in the company’s results that includes ad revenue from NFL streaming, increased 26% from the year-ago quarter to $12.06 billion. As the company has ramped up its ad efforts, across Prime Video but also on sister platforms like the gamer-centric Twitch as well as Freevee, it has posted year-on-year gains of at least 20% in each of the past several quarters.

MORE to come …