People Really Hated Amazon Prime Video's Football Debut

When the Los Angeles Chargers took on the Kansas City Chiefs last night, fans got a clearer picture of what the future of sports media might look like. The game was streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, part of Amazon's new NFL deal that turned the tech giant into the exclusive home of "Thursday Night Football." While last Thursday's season opener between the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills aired on NBC, all subsequent Thursday games (excluding the nationally televised Thanksgiving games) will be streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon has dabbled in NFL broadcasts in the past, but last night marked the first time a major game was available exclusively on a streaming service. Some growing pains were inevitable, and few expected it to be easy to prepare the NFL's massive, demographic fanbase to watch the game on a new platform. In addition to logistical hurdles, it was also the first game for new broadcast duo Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit. Both men are very familiar faces to football fans, but had never called games before (Michaels recently left his longtime home on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" to join Amazon, and Herbstreit spends his Saturdays to anchor ESPN's extensive college football coverage). With all these new variables, many observers close to the league were as curious about the broadcast as they were about Justin Herbert's ability to go up against Patrick Mahomes.

But many fans finally felt like the broadcast had started well. Some complained that the too-smooth presentation negatively affected image quality, while many others encountered issues with pixelation, syncing, and audio skipping and stopping frequently.

Even when motion smoothing is turned off, it still looks like it's turned on during Prime Video's NFL games.

— Christian Blauvelt (@ctblauvelt)

Whoever came up with the idea of ​​putting football on Amazon Prime Video instead of it just being on TV, fuck you

— jake (@jakemckinney17)

I love watching Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. I love that everything is pixelated and blurry. I also love how the sound and video are out of sync properly.

Great stream, I love it.

—King Sully Mac 169 IQ 5'10ish" (@SullyMacCat85)

First night watching NFL on Amazon Prime…stream quality is terrible on video and audio.