If You Watch Thursday Night Football, Here's How Fire TV Can Level Up Your Experience

Alongside having access to shop deals during members-only events like Prime Day and scoring free, fast shipping on countless items, an Amazon Prime membership also gives you the keys to watch Thursday Night Football games.

Tonight at 8:15 PM ET (with a pregame show at 7 PM ET), October 12, 2023, the Denver Broncos will take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, MO. It’s the second year of Amazon streaming these games online and on countless other devices through a Fire TV interface or the Prime Video application on other smart TVs.

However, Amazon enhanced the Thursday Night Football experience on a Fire TV streaming Stick and Cube and TVs with a Fire TV interface built-in. To unpack those, we’re sharing a few of the most exciting elements and chatted with Joshua Danovitz, Director of the Fire TV Experience at Amazon.

Sweetening the deal are limited time savings on Fire TV Omni and Omni QLED TVs and multiple devices that let you get the Fire TV experience on another TV.

How to watch Thursday Night Football on Prime Video

The only requirement to watch Thursday Night Football on Prime Video is an active Prime membership. It’s one of the many perks and ensures you can tune in and watch every minute of the game on a device with Prime Video.

Amazon Prime is either a monthly, at $15, or a yearly subscription, at $139, but those new to the service can sign up for a free trial here. You can also access Amazon’s shopping events just for Prime members, like Prime Big Deal Days and exclusive deals leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Once signed up, open the Prime Video app on your smart device like a phone, Fire TV streamer, Fire TV television, or a smart TV with Prime Video integration. You can also access it on the web at Prime Video’s site.

But as we gleaned from our conversation with Amazon and our testing, it pays to be within the ecosystem for an enhanced watching experience.

Danovitz shared that Fire TV is the best choice for watching Thursday Night Football as you can “follow all the action, ask in-depth questions about teams and players, get real-time stats, play trivia, enable Routines, and more through hands-free Alexa voice commands that allow customers to stay immersed in the action.”

Watching Thursday Night Football on a Fire TV Device

It makes sense, as one of the tentpoles of the Fire TV experience is the deep integration with Alexa. Either on a Fire TV Cube, a Fire TV Omni television, or an Omni QLED TV, you get a hands-free experience. So when it’s close to game time, you can ask Alexa to open Thursday Night Football, and if a query comes up in the pre-game or you need to settle a debate about who has the most tackles, you can ask the virtual assistant for an answer in real time.

Alexa’s knowledge base is constantly growing, and Danovitz shared that last year, the assistant answered over 40% more sports-related questions than in 2021. It could be as simple as who’s leading the league in touchdowns or interceptions, but it can also be more specific to the actual game.

I tested this out on a 43-inch Fire TV Omni QLED, with Alexa hands-free enabled, and could ask Alexa to go back and replay the last touchdown or big moment from the game, but can also pull X-ray stats. It is a real-time overlay in which Amazon analyzes the game and can deliver stats like yards of separation or the time a player took to throw the ball. It’s handy for those who want a dose of tech tossed into the NFL viewing experience.

It’s pretty neat, and for those built out with a smart home or those wanting to dive into one, you can now seat an intelligent routine to kick off right as your NFL team's game starts. You can customize it to your liking, but let’s say you have it set to turn on your TV and play a song to get you in the mood—maybe “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen or, for Kelce fans this evening, it could be “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift—and even set lighting to match your teams' colors. It’s a fantastic way to level up your game-day experience.

Regardless of what Fire TV or non-Fire TV device you’re streaming on, you’ll get an upgrade to the visuals as Thursday Night Football now streams with HDR or High Dynamic Range for better colors that will pop and better contrast with vibrance and subtle elements.

However, if you’re keen on hands-free control and the ability to ask Alexa game-related questions and queries, it does pay to stream from a Fire TV device. Luckily, Amazon makes quite a few of those.

Within the realm of TVs, we’d suggest going for the more advanced Fire TV Omni QLED series, which ranges from 43 inches to 75 inches. You’ll find that for football, as well as any other content, colors will be more vivid thanks to a Qunatum Dot layer, and if you’re having a gameday party, you’ll get solid viewing angles all-around.

Of course, Fire TV is built-in as well as total hands-free control from Alexa so that you can stream Thursday Night Football but also get access to all the major streaming service apps like Apple TV, Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+, and countless others.

Best Fire TV Omni QLED and Fire TV Stick Deals

Thanks to a still-cooking Amazon Prime Big Deal Days—aka the October Prime Day—sale, you can save up to 27% off a Fire TV Omni QLED TV. While the 43-inch size is great for a bedroom, the best size after the discount would be the 65-inch Fire TV Omni QLED, a record $210 off at $590.

• 43-inch Fire TV Omni QLED Television, $390 (was $450) at Amazon
• 50-inch Fire TV Omni QLED Television, $410 (was $530) at Amazon
• 55-inch Fire TV Omni QLED Television, $440 (was $600) at Amazon
• 65-inch Fire TV Omni QLED Television, $590 (was $800) at Amazon
• 75-inch Fire TV Omni QLED Television, $900 (was $1,100) at Amazon

If you already have a TV, maybe a Neo QLED from Samsung or an OLED from Sony, you can get the Fire TV gameday experience through a Fire TV Stick or Cube. Right now, one of our top-tested streamers, the Fire TV Stick 4K, is down to a record-low price of just $23. A massive 54% off the $50 price tag, and it’s a simple streamer that plugs directly into the HDMI port of your TV.

From there, you’ll use the included Alexa Voice Remote to navigate the Fire TV experience and can hold the Alexa button to control it all with your voice. You can also use an Echo smart speaker—like the Pop or Dot—for hands-free control, assuming it’s the same Amazon account. With this, you can stream via Prime Video and other leading streaming services. And just like how a Fire TV Omni QLED will upscale content, the Fire TV Stick 4K can enhance content to whatever the maximum resolution of the TV it is plugged into is.

Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.