
Behind the Mic: Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit Tapped for Thursday Night Football on Prime Video By SVG Staff
Friday, April 1, 2022 - 11:45 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Behind the Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, Amazon signs Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit for Thursday Night Football, multiyear extensions at ESPN, and more.
Amazon Taps Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit for Thursday Night Football on Prime Video Prime Video has announced that iconic play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and Emmy-winning analyst Kirk Herbstreit have joined Prime Video to call its exclusive coverage of NFL Thursday Night Football. The inaugural season of the historic 11-year agreement kicks off Sept. 15.
The recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award in 2011, Michaels recently completed his record 36th campaign as the play-by-play announcer of the NFL in prime time. Michaels called his 11th Super Bowl in February, matching the most ever for a television commentator.
Herbstreit has served as the lead college football analyst for ESPN since 1996. In that time, Herbstreit has established himself as one of the preeminent voices in the sport, garnering 14 Sports Emmys for his work as both a live event analyst on ABC's Saturday Night Football as well as a studio analyst on ESPN's College GameDay.
Fred Gaudelli, a 24-time Emmy-winning producer, will also join Prime Video as executive producer of Thursday Night Football. Gaudelli will lead the Thursday Night Football production on-site each week, as part of a collaboration with NBC Sports, continuing a storied career with his 33rd season as the lead producer for the NFL in prime time. Gaudelli, who produced his seventh Super Bowl in February, will continue on NBC Sports' executive team and will serve as a key contributor to NBC Sunday Night Football's editorial and production efforts.
Over the last 36 seasons, I've been at the mic describing some of the most magical moments and games in NFL history and am looking forward to many more, says Michaels. This is the new frontier in sports television and to be a part of the launch at this point in my career is both exciting and stimulating. The NFL is the king of unscripted television and I'm looking forward to joining Kirk to bring fans more dramatic episodes on Thursday nights this fall.
I'm thrilled to be a part of Prime Video's game-changing new Thursday Night Football telecasts, and it's an honor to join the booth alongside Al, sats Herbstreit. Together, we will build the next generation of NFL programming. I'm proud to be part of the Amazon team and can't wait to get started.
Al and I have had a great run for 21 years and I'm thrilled to extend our relationship and welcome Kirk Herbstreit to the Prime Video team, said Gaudelli. Al and Kirk will make Thursday Night Football a unique viewing experience for all NFL fans.
Al and Kirk bring unparalleled experience to our historic new Thursday Night Football game telecasts, as we kick off our groundbreaking new agreement with the NFL, says Marie Donoghue, vice president, Global Sports Video, Amazon. Having these two legends in the booth, with the best game producer in the business, Fred Gaudelli, will help make Thursday night the most exciting football night of the week.
With their infectious passion for the game, Al, Kirk, and Fred are the perfect building blocks to make Thursday Night Football on Prime Video a weekly destination for all football fans, says Jared Stacy, director of Global Live Sports Production, Prime Video. We're thrilled to have this crew on board as we create a dynamic, informative, and entertaining night of NFL programming that will make every big moment on the field feel even bigger.
When TNF returns, Prime Video will become the first streaming service to air a season-long exclusive national broadcast package with the NFL. The 11-year deal includes 15 regular-season games and one preseason game per year, with Prime Video also delivering new pregame, halftime, and postgame shows as well as fan-favorite interactive features like X-Ray and Next Gen Stats powered by AWS. Prime Video and the NFL will continue to collaborate on exclusive NFL content and enhanced fan-viewing experiences around Thursday Night Football, with more information to follow in the coming months.
Jake Peavy, Hunter Pence Named MLB Network Analysts MLB Network has announced that two-time World Series Champions Jake Peavy and Hunter Pence have joined MLB Network as on-air analysts appearing across its programming.
Peavy, the 2007 National League Cy Young Award winner, most recently contributed to MLB Network's National Baseball Hall of Fame roundtable program leading up to election day this past January.
Pence, a four-time MLB All-Star, most recently joined MLB Network as an in-studio guest analyst during the 2021 Postseason. Peavy and Pence were teammates on the 2014 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants, who defeated the Kansas City Royals in seven games. Viewers can follow Peavy on Twitter via @JakePeavy_22, and Pence on Twitter via @hunterpence.
MLB Network recently announced that newly retired players Alex Avila and Cameron Maybin have also joined MLB Network.
Sharing stories and talking about the game a few months ago at MLB Network really excited me for this opportunity, says Peavy. I'm looking forward to teaching a few tips I learned along the way while having some fun doing it.
I'm thrilled about the opportunity to contribute to MLB Network, says Pence. As a former player, I'm excited to get back into the game in a new capacity and become teammates with a great group
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...