According to Micheal McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Amazon is eyeing at taking the 'Manningcast' away from ESPN.
As the tech giant is looking to further its involvement in the NFL, the platform's Prime Video service is eyeing Peyton and Eli Manning for a “Thursday Night Football” MegaCast once Omaha Productions’ 3-year deal is up with ESPN.
Under the current deal between Peyton Manning’s production company and Disney, the contract asks that the Manning brothers do 10 alternate “Monday Night Football” games each season from 2021-2023. The brothers have been a huge hit, having already generated the seven most-watched alternate telecasts in ESPN history -- hitting a high of 1.96 million viewers for MNF’s Week 8 game on Nov. 1.
ESPN of course would have exclusive access to renew its deal with the Mannings before they have the chance to open up conversations with other suitors. The source also told FOS that the new president and CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, is a huge sports fan and that the belief is Amazon can come in with a bunch of money and exclusive Amazon Prime content deals to force the Manning's hand.
“Amazon could just come in with a ton of money for the show — plus Amazon Prime content deals for Omaha — then move ManningCast over in two years,” the source told Front Office Sports."
Amazon is making a big investment in the NFL as they are the lead contender in buying nearly half of the league's properties, like the NFL Network. The company is weighing a TNF announcing “dream team” of Troy Aikman and Al Michaels for 2022.
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Despite Amazon having all the money in the world to sway the Manning's away from ESPN, don't discount the power and influence of Disney. Since 2019, ESPN has built a relationship with Omaha, already having a slate of shows on ESPN+ -- including Manning’s popular “Peyton’s Places,” and five more series that are in development, including “Eli’s Places” with Eli Manning, “Abby’s Places” with Abby Wambach and “Papi’s Places” with David Ortiz.
“Why mess with success?” asked another source. “Don’t forget the NFL would probably have to approve. The league loves what ESPN is doing with the Mannings on TV. Does the NFL want ManningCast to be a streaming-only property?”
Follow Jasper Jones on Twitter: @jonesj2342
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