TNF Games on Amazon Prime

[RiverDog]

I didn't realize until recently that nearly all of the Thursday Night Football games will be televised live exclusively on Amazon Prime. The only exceptions are the season opener, to be televised on NBC, the Thanksgiving Day games, and in local markets of the participating teams. I am an Amazon Prime member, so it won't affect me personally.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/05/03/thurs ... %20package.

My best friend is 83 years old and I like to tease him by saying that on Y2K, he failed to step through the time portal and enter the 21st century as he is generally adverse to such innovations like smart phones and social media. I once tried to talk him into getting a Fire Stick or Roku so he could watch stuff streaming over the internet instead of recording stuff on. There is a direct relationship between a person's age and their acceptance/compatibility with new technology. Plus he hates Amazon.

In any event, I'm wondering how the general public will react once they find out that they can't watch TNF over the traditional stations, ie Fox, NBC, NFL Network, et al.

[Hawktawk]

Ticks me off . We already have 300 plus in sattelite and phone now this . Once again in search of the almighty dollar and the hell with the fans who don’t have enough dough to subscribe .

[Aseahawkfan]

I didn't realize until recently that nearly all of the Thursday Night Football games will be televised live exclusively on Amazon Prime. The only exceptions are the season opener, to be televised on NBC, the Thanksgiving Day games, and in local markets of the participating teams. I am an Amazon Prime member, so it won't affect me personally.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/05/03/thurs ... %20package.

My best friend is 83 years old and I like to tease him by saying that on Y2K, he failed to step through the time portal and enter the 21st century as he is generally adverse to such innovations like smart phones and social media. I once tried to talk him into getting a Fire Stick or Roku so he could watch stuff streaming over the internet instead of recording stuff on. There is a direct relationship between a person's age and their acceptance/compatibility with new technology. Plus he hates Amazon.

In any event, I'm wondering how the general public will react once they find out that they can't watch TNF over the traditional stations, ie Fox, NBC, NFL Network, et al.

NFL doesn't much care as Amazon bid the highest expecting a big boon to their Amazon Prime profits with football fans signing up. As you and I and any sensible person knows, football is a business.

[Hawktawk]

Not like they are hurting for money . The fans come last

[RiverDog]

Of course, it's a business. It has been for a long, long time. But I wouldn't get my briefs in a wad over it. We're only talking about 17 out of 272 regular season games, about 6% of the schedule.

I don't think that this is a lot different from when MNF went to ESPN 10-15 years ago. At the time, not everyone had ESPN. We had a work group at the plant that collected some money for an over-the-air TV so that they could watch MNF on their breaks. They didn't realize that it was no longer on ABC until the first game of the season when they tuned in and got the local news.

People will do what they did back when MNF left network television. They'll either go to a friend's house, to the neighborhood bar, or sign up for Amazon Prime.

[Aseahawkfan]

Of course, it's a business. It has been for a long, long time. But I wouldn't get my briefs in a wad over it. We're only talking about 17 out of 272 regular season games, about 6% of the schedule.

I don't think that this is a lot different from when MNF went to ESPN 10-15 years ago. At the time, not everyone had ESPN. We had a work group at the plant that collected some money for an over-the-air TV so that they could watch MNF on their breaks. They didn't realize that it was no longer on ABC until the first game of the season when they tuned in and got the local news.

People will do what they did back when MNF left network television. They'll either go to a friend's house, to the neighborhood bar, or sign up for Amazon Prime.

You gonna host some Thursday night football parties?

[Hawktawk]

We will bend over and take it . Don’t have to like it

[RiverDog]

Of course, it's a business. It has been for a long, long time. But I wouldn't get my briefs in a wad over it. We're only talking about 17 out of 272 regular season games, about 6% of the schedule.

I don't think that this is a lot different from when MNF went to ESPN 10-15 years ago. At the time, not everyone had ESPN. We had a work group at the plant that collected some money for an over-the-air TV so that they could watch MNF on their breaks. They didn't realize that it was no longer on ABC until the first game of the season when they tuned in and got the local news.

People will do what they did back when MNF left network television. They'll either go to a friend's house, to the neighborhood bar, or sign up for Amazon Prime.

You gonna host some Thursday night football parties?

Sure, and you're all invited!

[NorthHawk]

Pisses me off.
Now paying more for streaming than I ever did for cable or satellite.

[RiverDog]

Pisses me off.
Now paying more for streaming than I ever did for cable or satellite.

LOL!

When we retired, I got rid of my Dish Network satellite and figured it would be cheaper to go with OTA TV and internet streaming. But I couldn't find a steaming service that televised Mariners games. Even MLB's streaming service blacked out local markets. So I ended up going to Charter Spectrum cable, the only provider that had Mariners games, and now I'm paying more than before I ditched Dish Network.

So now, I've resolved myself to the prospect that I'm going to be paying $200+ a month for my TV. Can't fight city hall.

[tarlhawk]

I have supported Amazon based on their customer/business model and Amazon Prime was like a no-brainer to me. I continue to be "rewarded" for my annual payment.

I have not been stricken with an urge to watch Mariners ball games on tv...their long season is satisfied by online articles as the season progresses. My last live ball game with my wife was to "show off" our "new" rookie shortstop Alex Rodriguez yet her own interest was in "seeing" (fairly cheap seats) Ken Griffey Jr. (who was a late announced scratch...due to a cold). I easily spotted Frank Thomas for the White Sox at firstbase (he "looked" like a former football TE).

[Hawk Sista]

It’s sad that so many fans won’t be able to watch. I can’t (ok, I can…but I don’t want to) keep up w/ every platform. I was pissed when games moved to cable 100 years ago for the same reason. The NFL is a greedy as bizz. I wish I could quit!

[RiverDog]

It’s sad that so many fans won’t be able to watch. I can’t (ok, I can…but I don’t want to) keep up w/ every platform. I was pissed when games moved to cable 100 years ago for the same reason. The NFL is a greedy as bizz. I wish I could quit!

Sometimes their greed gets the best of them and they end up killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Boxing used to have a huge presence on network television. My dad told me that in the 50's, it was on 5 nights a week. When I was in college in the mid 70's, a heavyweight championship bout would be televised live in Prime Time on network TV. But then they decided that they could make more money by limiting the live telecasts to what was then called closed circuit TV, a.k.a. pay per view, and they quit televising them on over the air network TV. In my mind, that decision is one of the factors of what ultimately led to the decline in popularity of the sport.

I doubt that the NFL will wane in popularity because they're televising less than 3% of their regular season games on a premium streaming service, but it will be interesting to see how much of an effect this has on viewership, and how much extra business Amazon gets as a result.

[NorthHawk]

The real danger for the NFL is if other streamers like Apple or Disney decide to also get involved and isolate more fans who don't want to pay for their package just
for NFL. Sunday Ticket will probably be the next to go to streaming I would think if it hasn't already.

[RiverDog]

The real danger for the NFL is if other streamers like Apple or Disney decide to also get involved and isolate more fans who don't want to pay for their package just
for NFL. Sunday Ticket will probably be the next to go to streaming I would think if it hasn't already.

Direct TV's contract for Sunday Ticket expires in 2022, and the favorite to win the new contract is Apple:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... ay-ticket/

It's hard to say if the overall effect will be good or bad. I know that there's a lot of people that would get Sunday Ticket but they don't want to go with Direct TV. If it were available from a streaming service, you wouldn't have to go to the expense of installing and paying for a premium satellite subscription. They might end up with more viewers with streaming than they had with satellite.

[NorthHawk]

With streaming can you switch back and forth between games like you can with
the tv remote? Or do you have to stop play and start a new stream?
If you can’t flip around the different games, it lessens the experience of Sunday Ticket as you will be continually
stopping and starting streams which can mean missing plays.
That’s what I liked about Sunday Ticket- if a game dragged on or there were a few games that could be interesting
I could jump around within a second between games.

[RiverDog]

With streaming can you switch back and forth between games like you can with
the tv remote? Or do you have to stop play and start a new stream?
If you can’t flip around the different games, it lessens the experience of Sunday Ticket as you will be continually
stopping and starting streams which can mean missing plays.
That’s what I liked about Sunday Ticket- if a game dragged on or there were a few games that could be interesting
I could jump around within a second between games.

I couldn't tell you. My Charter Spectrum runs via an app connected to the internet and I have all the functions available that I would in any other mode, ie pause, rewind, etc, but whether that's the same as what Amazon and Apple offer, I don't know.

If Apple offers Sunday Ticket at a reasonable cost, I might sign up for it. The Hawks are libel to be so shi!ty that I might want more options on games where they're getting blown out.

[Aseahawkfan]

I couldn't tell you. My Charter Spectrum runs via an app connected to the internet and I have all the functions available that I would in any other mode, ie pause, rewind, etc, but whether that's the same as what Amazon and Apple offer, I don't know.

If Apple offers Sunday Ticket at a reasonable cost, I might sign up for it. The Hawks are libel to be so shi!ty that I might want more options on games where they're getting blown out.

Please football gods, let the defense turnaround so we don't get blown out a lot. Please make Hurtt be the next defensive guru in the making, so we can have an amazing defense again.

[RiverDog]

If Apple TV or some other streaming service gets the Sunday Ticket contract, it could really be a huge plus for football fanatics like us. Apple TV currently offers a subscription for $4.99/month. That price, or at least the price for a package that includes Sunday Ticket, is bound to go up, but it almost certainly is going to be substantially less than what Direct TV charges for it. This is a situation worth keeping an eye on. Stay tuned.

[RiverDog]

If you're interested in recording Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, there appears to be a very easy way to do so. All it requires is to go into your Amazon Prime Video account and check mark a box to enable the recording of all TNF episodes. Just open the link below and scroll down until you see How to Record “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video and click on the hyperlink and it should take you to directly to your Prime Video account, or at least it did for me.

https://thestreamable.com/news/thursday ... every-game

[RiverDog]

If you haven't heard by now, you aren't a football fan. The only way to watch tonight's Chargers-Chiefs game live is over Amazon Prime.

I saw the other day that internet streaming has surpassed both cable and satellite as the most popular mode to watch live television. The first game I saw live streamed was one of the London games, streamed over Yahoo, and it was horrible. The technology has improved by leaps and bounds. Except for a 15-30 second time delay, I can't tell any difference in the quality of the broadcast.

Thursday Night Football is only the beginning. The league will award a new contract for their Sunday Ticket package now owned by DirectTV. It will undoubtedly go to a streaming service, either ESPN+, Apple TV, or Amazon Prime.

And if you don't have access to cable, satellite, or an over the air signal, don't forget to check out the network's apps. A couple years ago, our local NBC affiliate had a contractor cut a line that took their TV station down on Sunday morning, so there was no way to get SNF that evening, either on our Spectrum feed or my OTA antenna. However, my internet connection was unaffected, so I was able to watch the game live via the NBC Sports app.

I'm heading out of town next week in our motor home. The area we're staying at on Monday night is primitive, with just one OTA channel available and no direct internet connection. But we will have cell phone service, so I should be able to watch both MNF games live via a streaming service like Fubo TV, which has a free one-week trial.

[c_hawkbob]

I'll be watching the first half on my Kindle Fire at work, the second half at home on Amazon Prime. I actually kinda like it for weekday games.

[RiverDog]

I'll be watching the first half on my Kindle Fire at work, the second half at home on Amazon Prime. I actually kinda like it for weekday games.

Cool! It will be nice for times when you can't bring a TV with you, as in your case when you're at work or mine when I'm on the road in our motor home. So long as you can get to a place that has cell phone service, you'll be able to watch the games live.

[Aseahawkfan]

If you haven't heard by now, you aren't a football fan. The only way to watch tonight's Chargers-Chiefs game live is over Amazon Prime.

I saw the other day that internet streaming has surpassed both cable and satellite as the most popular mode to watch live television. The first game I saw live streamed was one of the London games, streamed over Yahoo, and it was horrible. The technology has improved by leaps and bounds. Except for a 15-30 second time delay, I can't tell any difference in the quality of the broadcast.

Thursday Night Football is only the beginning. The league will award a new contract for their Sunday Ticket package now owned by DirectTV. It will undoubtedly go to a streaming service, either ESPN+, Apple TV, or Amazon Prime.

And if you don't have access to cable, satellite, or an over the air signal, don't forget to check out the network's apps. A couple years ago, our local NBC affiliate had a contractor cut a line that took their TV station down on Sunday morning, so there was no way to get SNF that evening, either on our Spectrum feed or my OTA antenna. However, my internet connection was unaffected, so I was able to watch the game live via the NBC Sports app.

I'm heading out of town next week in our motor home. The area we're staying at on Monday night is primitive, with just one OTA channel available and no direct internet connection. But we will have cell phone service, so I should be able to watch both MNF games live via a streaming service like Fubo TV, which has a free one-week trial.

I do everything on the internet. I don't even have cable television and have no interest in going back to it. Paying for tons of channels I don't watch has no appeal to me.

[RiverDog]

I do everything on the internet. I don't even have cable television and have no interest in going back to it. Paying for tons of channels I don't watch has no appeal to me.

Same with my daughter and SIL. They have over the air TV and internet streaming, no cable or satellite, which have priced themselves out of the market. I keep my cable subscription with Charter so I could watch Mariners games, which at the time we subscribed, was the only way to get Root Sports, plus they're my internet service provider and had the fastest speed available. It's nice, because my daughter and SIL can use my account to stream programming over Spectrum's app on their TV in Spokane, as I can when I travel.

[trents]

Well, this thread reminded me of something I've noticed in watching Mariner's games. Friday night Mariner's games are televised only via Apple TV+. This is per a deal with MLB, not the Mariners' franchise per se. The subscription to Apple TV+ is not terribly expensive and you get a "free 7 day trial". A number of other Mariner games are available only via YouTube, which (for now) is free. The trend is obvious: fewer and fewer Mariner games are being broadcast over Root TV (all free) and more and more of them are becoming available only on streaming services. MLB has figured out that they can make more money through subscription contracts than they can through paid by advertising cable channels. You will see this model get more and more traction in the big three or four major spectator sports. We will get nickle and dimed to death by paid subscriptions to content streaming companies in order to watch sports.

[RiverDog]

Well, this thread reminded me of something I've noticed in watching Mariner's games. Friday night Mariner's games are televised only via Apple TV+. This is per a deal with MLB, not the Mariners' franchise per se. The subscription to Apple TV+ is not terribly expensive and you get a "free 7 day trial". A number of other Mariner games are available only via YouTube, which (for now) is free. The trend is obvious: fewer and fewer Mariner games are being broadcast over Root TV (all free) and more and more of them are becoming available only on streaming services. MLB has figured out that they can make more money through subscription contracts than they can through paid by advertising cable channels. You will see this model get more and more traction in the big three or four major spectator sports. We will get nickle and dimed to death by paid subscriptions to content streaming companies in order to watch sports.

I noticed that Root wasn't televising all of the Mariners games. I haven't been watching them very religiously.

Even by getting nickeled and dimed to death, we're still going to come out money ahead with the streaming services providing competition for cable and satellite. I was paying over $150/month for my Dish Network service before I retired and decided to cut my expenses. There's a ton of streaming services out there, ie Hulu, Sling, Fubo, Disney, Peacock, Pluto, etc, and you don't need special equipment like you do with cable or satellite.

It's nice for me as I wanted to have TV in my motor home, but I didn't have room to pack around a satellite dish or vertical clearance to mount it on the roof. With internet streaming, all I need is cell phone service and I can get live TV.

[Hawktawk]

I ate dinner with friends at a Resturant called beach house at mardon at O’Sullivan reservoir this evening . They didn’t have Amazon prime and so we missed the game . F the league with their money grubbing bs. I heard the feed sucked part of the game too . I’m sure it’s great to make billions as a sports league but they have completely forgotten the poverty stricken fan , the struggling bar , the middle class that is the bedrock of their support . I’ll never look away , it’s sports heroin in my blue veins but it still pisses me off beyond measure .

[jshawaii22]

The only part of it that move to Amazon that pisses me off is you can't flip around channels as it takes a lot of time to go "3rd party" and log back in to the Amazon each time.
I hate commercials and half-times.

[RiverDog]

I had no problems with the telecast. The quality was fine. The differences HT noted might have been due to the individual ISP, if the speed was slow. I have the fastest internet available. I check marked the box to record and they had a feature where there was a ghosted 10 second advance, rewind, stop/play, so I could put it on hold, go take my shower, then skip the commercials. I was surprised to see Al Michaels doing the play-by-play. I thought he had retired.

I'm not sure what JS's complaint about not being able to channel surf. Using my tablet to run Prime Video, I don't have to log out of my account, just minimize it to my task bar and it continues to run. I was doing that often last night as I had 3 players on my fantasy team and would minimize Prime to my task bar so I could check their progress while continuing to listen to the audio play-by-play. They also had a feature where you can choose the type of broadcast you want to see, with one of them showing real time stats through Next Gen, highlight players with moving circles, and displays other information on the screen. Not my bag, but it is an option. It was perfect. I could watch the game on my tablet while sitting on my deck in front of a fire while I ate my supper and I have it recorded, something I can't do on ESPN games.

As far as the money-grubbing league goes, it's been that way for decades. I'm not sure what difference is between Amazon Prime and NFL Network that used to telecast TNF as far as accessibility goes. I remember similar complaints when the league took MNF away from network television and gave it to ESPN, and that was nearly 20 years ago. If you haven't gotten used to it by now, you're in for more angst in the coming years as they'll continue to squeeze every dime out of the consumer that they can. It's a business (surprise, surprise).

We have a MNF double header this coming Monday, one game on ABC, the other on ESPN. I'm heading to my BIL's primitive cabin near Chelan Falls, no power, cable, internet, etc. I have an app through my Charter Spectrum account where I can get their programming, but sometimes when I'm away from my area, they have the network stations blacked out, so I'm going to sign up for a free trial of one of the streaming services in case I can't get ABC through Spectrum. I wouldn't be surprised if the MNF double headers become more frequent then the league sells the rights to one of those games to a streaming service.

[Agent 86]

Guess we are lucky up here in Canada. One of our national sports networks (TSN) carried the game and you can get that channel in your regular cable package or by streaming it if you pay for that already so you don't have to subscribe to Prime (although I do anyways). So I even have the ability to PVR the game if I wanted to.

The telecast was pretty good. I am neither here nor there when it comes to Al Michaels (I am a big Mike Tirico fan so glad he is now the Sunday Night guy) and came away impressed with Kirk Herbstreit as the colour guy. I didn't see much of the pre-game with Sherm, Fitzpatrick, Whitworth, Gonzales, and hosted by Charissa Thompson. But seems like a good crew.

[NorthHawk]

The one thing that bothered me about the pre game and halftime show was it was at field level and for the most part I
struggled to hear clearly what was being said. The halftime band was seemingly right beside them blowing their
horns.

[trents]

The real danger for the NFL is if other streamers like Apple or Disney decide to also get involved and isolate more fans who don't want to pay for their package just
for NFL. Sunday Ticket will probably be the next to go to streaming I would think if it hasn't already.

Agreed! My wife and I have the Xfinity triple play package where land line, cable TV and Internet are bundled which gives a discount. The cable TV component, historically, at least, gets me all sports I want to watch. But lately, the sports leagues have started to pull out more and more sport programming from cable services and make it available only through streaming providers. I think this may be a response to the "cable cutting" trend. Cable TV revenue has been falling for several years because so many people have ditched cable and get all of their content from the Internet. The problem is there is still a lot of content (not just sports) offered on cable that is not offered on the Internet. Eventually, when a robust enough infrastructure is in place, it will all be streaming but in the meantime there is this awkward transition where a lot of people have to pay for both cable and multiple streaming services in order to get everything they want.

[RiverDog]

The real danger for the NFL is if other streamers like Apple or Disney decide to also get involved and isolate more fans who don't want to pay for their package just
for NFL. Sunday Ticket will probably be the next to go to streaming I would think if it hasn't already.

Agreed! My wife and I have the Xfinity triple play package where land line, cable TV and Internet are bundled which gives a discount. The cable TV component, historically, at least, gets me all sports I want to watch. But lately, the sports leagues have started to pull out more and more sport programming from cable services and make it available only through streaming providers. I think this may be a response to the "cable cutting" trend. Cable TV revenue has been falling for several years because so many people have ditched cable and get all of their content from the Internet. The problem is there is still a lot of content (not just sports) offered on cable that is not offered on the Internet. Eventually, when a robust enough infrastructure is in place, it will all be streaming but in the meantime there is this awkward transition where a lot of people have to pay for both cable and multiple streaming services in order to get everything they want.

Yup. The entertainment landscape has been, and always will be, in flux. I grew up with 3 network stations, black and white, no remote controls, and no VCR's while my parents got their only entertainment via radio. My daughter grew up with VCR's, cable TV/satellite, but no internet. The current generation is growing up with a waning cable TV/satellite industry and internet streaming. What's next?

I had a dilemma on this week's MNF double header as we'll be out of town in our motor home and away from OTA signals. The first game is telecast on ESPN, which is no problem as my Spectrum app should be able to provide me with access, but the second game, Vikings vs Eagles, is televised in ABC, and none of the streaming services will allow access to network stations live when you're out of your area. However, the 2nd game is also televised on ESPN+, which is ESPN's streaming service, and available for $10/month cancel anytime, so I signed up. Gotta get my football fix!

[NorthHawk]

So let me get this straight.
You are going on a trip in your motorhome but will spend 6 hours on Monday watching TV.
Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

The real problems I think will happen in the future when it's all on streaming only.
To set the scenario for instance, let's say Hulu has the current FOX pgk and Netflix has the current CBS package.
It's near the end of the season and the Vikings are playing the Packers and the Bucs are playing the Rams on HULU, while on Netflix the Bills are playing the Steelers and the Titans are playing the Bengals.
In all 4 games the matchups are between teams with very similar records and you want to be able to jump between games quickly as the games develop. Recording them all isn't the same because
you will know who wins. How do you jump between the 4 games on two different streaming services without missing a lot of the action? Currently it's just a jump key on my remote, but if I have to
sign in and sign out it will mean a big loss of enjoyment and frustration.

[RiverDog]

So let me get this straight. You are going on a trip in your motorhome but will spend 6 hours on Monday watching TV.
Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

Now you're sounding like my wife. I doubt that I'll spend 6 hours watching MNF, but I want to be able to watch parts of both games. Besides, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to spend that much time watching live football. The two MNF games overlap, with the first one starting at 4:15pm and the 2nd one at 5:30pm.

The real problems I think will happen in the future when it's all on streaming only.
To set the scenario for instance, let's say Hulu has the current FOX pgk and Netflix has the current CBS package.
It's near the end of the season and the Vikings are playing the Packers and the Bucs are playing the Rams on HULU, while on Netflix the Bills are playing the Steelers and the Titans are playing the Bengals.
In all 4 games the matchups are between teams with very similar records and you want to be able to jump between games quickly as the games develop. Recording them all isn't the same because
you will know who wins. How do you jump between the 4 games on two different streaming services without missing a lot of the action? Currently it's just a jump key on my remote, but if I have to
sign in and sign out it will mean a big loss of enjoyment and frustration.

First off, I'd be surprised if the league would let that happen. They want to maintain plenty of accessibility to at least some of their games, which is why they insist that their playoff games all appear on network TV. IMO they'll keep at least the local market broadcasts we're used to seeing on Sundays within the 4 networks so we can pick them up for free over-the-air.

Secondly, do you have to log in/log out of your streaming service every time you want to see/do something else? I didn't have to last Thursday when I was watching Chiefs-Chargers on Prime Video, at least not on my tablet. I simply minimized it to my task bar and was able to do other things, including watching stuff via my Tablo app, my DVR that records live OTA broadcasts. However, I didn't try channel surfing on my smart TV while I was running the Prime app.

I honestly think that this will be a net plus for the consumer. For years, the cable/satellite industry had a stranglehold on the business. They'll have to respond if they want to continue to be viable.

[NorthHawk]

Secondly, do you have to log in/log out of your streaming service every time you want to see/do something else? I didn't have to last Thursday when I was watching Chiefs-Chargers on Prime Video, at least not on my tablet

Not log in, but I have to stop the stream on one, then start the other and select the program I want to see.
On the Cable side, I can jump, but I was thinking more in terms of having only internet access and no Cable
provider in the middle.
So on my TV, I have to go back to the menu and select the service (Netflix/Hulu, or whatever) then go to continue
program. It then acquires the stream.
The end result is instead of jumping quickly it’s a minute or so of lost viewing each time and would become frustrating
relative to using the Cable TV box with the football or sports package . A less enjoyable viewing experience.

[RiverDog]

Secondly, do you have to log in/log out of your streaming service every time you want to see/do something else? I didn't have to last Thursday when I was watching Chiefs-Chargers on Prime Video, at least not on my tablet

Not log in, but I have to stop the stream on one, then start the other and select the program I want to see.
On the Cable side, I can jump, but I was thinking more in terms of having only internet access and no Cable
provider in the middle.
So on my TV, I have to go back to the menu and select the service (Netflix/Hulu, or whatever) then go to continue
program. It then acquires the stream.
The end result is instead of jumping quickly it’s a minute or so of lost viewing each time and would become frustrating
relative to using the Cable TV box with the football or sports package . A less enjoyable viewing experience.

IC. One solution would be to get two tv's and mount them side-by-side. Or, you could get a tablet and watch it as you're watching the TV.