Amazon's British NFL commentary charms American football fans
Amazon is giving football fans across the pond a more relatable way to watch America's favorite sport.
The internet giant's inaugural Thursday Night Football broadcast not only included Spanish- and Portuguese-language options, but also a U.K. English feed, presumably for Brits struggling with the American accents of the CBS color commentary.
Helmed by soccer commentators Tommy Smyth and Ross Dwyer, the feed also charmed Americans who rarely get to hear a U.K. perspective on the sport.
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Thursday night's rivalry match-up between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears marks the first of 11 games included in a blockbuster streaming deal Amazon signed with the league this year.
An Amazon exec previously told Sports Business Daily that the secondary English feed was meant as a simpler alternative for fans less versed in football jargon. Yet based on a not-very-exhaustive listen to Smyth and Dwyer's broadcast Thursday night, their analysis didn't include any more explanation of the game or layman's terms--just different accents.
Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for more information.
The NFL has been trying to push into the U.K. market for years now with periodic exhibition and regular season games in London, and there's even been talk of bringing a team to the city.
Based on Twitter's reactions, America is all for a bigger British presence in the sport:
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Topics Amazon
Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.
