What changed
Prime Video airs 15 hours of free live sports on Black Friday; Amazon expects about 40% more advertisers
When
Thursday November 27, 2026, 9 a.m. to late evening ET
Who it affects
Brands selling on Amazon that buy streaming TV, DSP or Sponsored ads in Q4
What to do
Decide on a capped streaming test now and set up new-to-brand and branded search tracking

Key takeaways

  • Prime Video streams 15 hours of free live sports on November 27, 2026, and Amazon expects about 40% more Black Friday advertisers.
  • Last year's Black Friday NFL game averaged 16.33 million US viewers; 45% of surveyed brands plan streaming ads this holiday, up from 23%.
  • Fix search budgets and stock first, then run a capped streaming test judged on new-to-brand and repeat sales.

Prime Video on Black Friday, Nov 27, 2026 (ET)

  1. Skins Game golf, $4M purse

  2. Black Friday Football pregame

  3. Broncos at Steelers

  4. Heat at Knicks, NBA Cup

  5. Lakers at Spurs, NBA Cup

What Amazon is airing on Black Friday

Amazon updated its Black Friday lineup on October 13, 2026. Coverage starts at 9 a.m. ET with The Farmers Insurance Skins Game, a golf event with a $4 million purse featuring Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark and Jackson Koivun. The Black Friday Football pregame follows at 1:30 p.m., then the Denver Broncos visit the Pittsburgh Steelers at 3 p.m. in the fourth annual Black Friday game. At night Prime Video streams two Emirates NBA Cup games: Heat at Knicks at 7 p.m. and Lakers at Spurs at 9:30 p.m. Amazon says all four events can be watched in the Prime Video app without a subscription or Prime membership. PPC Land's November schedule listed the football game at 8:15 p.m.; we use Amazon's own 3 p.m. time.

Why 40% more advertisers matters

Amazon's head of US video and live sports sales, Danielle Carney, told Adweek the company has more Black Friday advertisers than ever, and Adweek reported Amazon expects about 40% more Black Friday advertisers than last year, naming an Avatar: Fire and Ash NBA takeover and a Pepsi launch among this year's buys. More buyers chasing a fixed number of ad breaks in a few live games means the premium spots are mostly gone by now. What remains open is the wider streaming audience Amazon sells programmatically across Prime Video and its other video inventory.

The audience behind the price

The demand follows the numbers. Last year's Bears at Eagles game averaged 16.33 million US viewers, peaked at 20.08 million and was the most watched Black Friday sporting event since at least 1991, according to Sports Media Watch citing Nielsen and Amazon. That was up 70% from the 9.61 million who watched the first game in 2023. This season Thursday Night Football averaged 17.7 million viewers through six games, 16% above last season's average, per Nielsen figures reported by PPC Land. Amazon has also tightened the ad funnel: ads have been on by default since January 2024, and the Prime Video Ultra tier, $4.99 a month since April 10, 2026, still lets live sports carry ads.

Black Friday NFL game, average US viewers (millions)

  • 2023 Dolphins at Jets9.61M
  • 2024 Raiders at Chiefs13.91M
  • 2025 Bears at Eagles16.33M
Source: Sports Media Watch, Nielsen and Amazon, Dec 2025

Brands are moving holiday money to streaming

Amazon's slate lands in a year when brands say they are buying more TV. In a Modern Retail+ Research survey of 90 brand and retail professionals published November 2, 45% planned to use connected TV or streaming ads this holiday, up from 23% in 2025, and 33% planned TV ads, up from 13%. Gift guides and influencer haul videos lost ground. Amazon's own ad revenue grew about 11% to $19.64 billion in Q3 2026, and the company guided to high-teens growth in Q4, so it is counting on exactly this holiday video spend. Read our Amazon Q3 2026 earnings breakdown for the wider picture.

So what for a brand's money

Black Friday is the most expensive day of the year to be on screen and on the search results page at once. Streaming TV builds demand you then pay to capture in Sponsored Products, so a TV test only makes sense if your search campaigns can catch the extra branded searches it creates. If your Sponsored Products budgets already run out by midday on peak days, adding TV first just sends new shoppers to rivals. Fix budget caps and stock first, then add video. Our Amazon Black Friday 2026 dates guide covers the deal calendar to plan around.

Worked example with illustrative numbers

These numbers are invented to show the arithmetic. A brand puts $15,000 into a streaming TV test across Black Friday week at an assumed $30 CPM. That buys 500,000 impressions. If its normal branded search volume is 2,000 searches a day and the test lifts it 10% for seven days, that is 1,400 extra branded searches. At a 12% conversion rate and a $40 average order, that is about 168 orders and $6,720 in attributed sales from search alone, a direct return of 0.45 on the TV spend. The test pays only if new-to-brand customers buy again, so the real decision rests on repeat rate, not on Black Friday ROAS.

What sellers should do before November 27

  • Amazon ads manager: confirm Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands budgets on branded and top category terms will not cap out on November 27 to December 1. Metric: hours out of budget per campaign on peak days.
  • Brand owner: decide this week whether a streaming test is worth it, with a fixed cap such as 5% to 10% of Q4 ad spend. Metric: cap written down before spend starts.
  • Media buyer: if you test, buy through Amazon's streaming TV options, Sponsored TV for self-serve or the DSP for audience targeting, so exposure and sales sit in one reporting stack. See our Amazon DSP agency page for how we set it up. Metric: new-to-brand percentage on exposed shoppers.
  • Analyst: record your branded search volume and new-to-brand orders for the two weeks before the flight. Metric: lift versus that baseline, not versus last Black Friday.
  • Inventory lead: check FBA stock covers the extra demand through Cyber Monday, because TV demand you cannot ship is wasted. Metric: days of cover on hero ASINs.
  • Finance lead: judge the test in January on 60-day repeat purchases from new customers. Metric: repeat rate and contribution margin per new customer.

Before you buy Black Friday TV

  • Search budgets hold all day
  • Hero ASINs have stock to Cyber Monday
  • Baseline branded searches logged
  • Test cap set at 5% to 10%
  • New-to-brand tracking on
  • January repeat review booked

When this does not apply

Streaming TV is a poor fit for brands with one or two ASINs, thin margins after fees, or less than $50,000 a month in Amazon sales, because the lift is hard to measure and the cost floor is high. It also does not replace search: if your listings are weak or out of stock, fix those first. Amazon has not disclosed ad load or prices for the Black Friday games, so treat any CPM you are quoted as negotiable and check it against your own past streaming results.

Where PPC Spider helps

We plan Amazon search, DSP and streaming budgets from one margin-based target, so TV money is only spent when search can catch the demand. Follow the Amazon advertising news channel, or start with a free Amazon audit.

Sources

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