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Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football Bans Presidential Campaign Ads


You won’t see any political ads on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football broadcast anytime soon.

Amazon’s website reads, “During an election year, we prohibit media products about a specific political party, issue, or candidate.”

Amazon can ban political ads from airing on its streaming platform because it is a streaming service and doesn’t need to adhere to FCC regulations.

Last year, FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly explained how streaming platforms are spared from following FCC regulations and stated, “The definitions and language Congress wrote into current statutory provisions do not extend to internet streamers.”

Check out what News Nation reported:

As the biannual flood of political ads overtakes every show on broadcast TV and cable between now and Election Day, there is one football game every week that is free of political ads: Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime.

“During an election year, we prohibit media products about a specific political party, issue, or candidate,” Amazon states on its list of prohibited content. But why is Amazon free from FCC regulations that force TV and cable to sell ads to campaigns?

It’s because streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu are not subject to FCC regulation.

“The definitions and language Congress wrote into current statutory provisions do not extend to internet streamers,” former FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly wrote last year.

“Bless you, Amazon,” wrote Ben Koo, founder of the sportscasting blog Awful Announcing.

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Per Outkick:

You tired of seeing Donald Trump or (mainly) Kamala Harris endorse dramatic commercials with paid actors about abortion during TV timeouts on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays?

Well, me too! Unfortunately for us, there’s not much we can do about the Monday and Sunday games. But if you’re looking for a reprieve, Thursday Night Football on Amazon is the place for you!

Amazon confirmed this week that they will NOT show any political commercials during their TNF coverage this fall. It’s been swirling around the rumor mill for a while now – mainly because folks noticed the lack of Kamala and/or Trump on Thursday nights – but now it’s been confirmed.

And I think I speak for all of us when I say … thank you, Amazon. Kudos to you. Your coverage may be a bit iffy, your stream may lag, Al may sound bored out of his mind half the time, but this … this makes up for all of it:



 

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