NFL Thursday Night Football has officially moved online to an exclusive, new streaming platform. For the 2023-2024 NFL season, Thursday’s games can only be seen on Amazon Prime Video.
This is no issue for U.S.-based fans with Prime membership, but football junkies traveling or living abroad won’t be able to access Thursday games online with international accounts. Customers without Amazon accounts will also likely be looking for free TNF live streams.
You’ll need a VPN before you take either route. Here’s the play, step-by-step:
- Get good sports streaming VPN. We recommend NordVPN for unblocking Amazon Prime Video’s U.S. library.
- Download the VPN and install it on your favorite streaming device.
- Log in to your account.
- Connect to a server in the United States.
- Go to Amazon Prime Video. Every Thursday Night Football game kicks off right around 8:15 PM (EST).
With the protection of a VPN’s security and anonymity protocols, many sports streamers opt to find free NFL live streams on possibly unsecured sites. We’ll explain more about VPNs, and you can use them to watch the entire Thursday Night Football lineup.
As the streaming wars continue, it seems no program is spared — not even the longtime television staple, NFL Thursday Night Football. For the first time in its history, notorious network-hopping TNF has found an exclusive home on Amazon Prime Video for the 2023-2024 NFL season.
While Amazon Prime Video is available internationally, only U.S.-based customers can access NFL Thursday Night Football. Fans traveling or living abroad need a VPN with a U.S. IP address to catch the action.
Of course, NFL Thursday Night Football streamers who opt for free NFL live streams also need a VPN for other reasons — to protect their online security and anonymity. We’ve got the playbook and can call the shots for both scenarios. Keep reading below to find out more.
How to Watch 2023 NFL Thursday Night Football Online
If you’re in the U.S., you can easily get Thursday Night Football with an Amazon Prime Video account (which is included with your Amazon Prime membership along with all those free deliveries).
But let’s say you’re working remotely in Medellin, Colombia — you’ll need to take another step and change your IP address to access Amazon Prime Video’s entire library. We’ll tell you exactly how to do that.
Step-by-step guide: Download a VPN to watch Thursday Night Football from anywhere
- Choose a VPN provider and create an account. We recommend NordVPN for its wide selection of American servers and fast connection speeds. They’ve also got a 30-day free trial that you can take advantage of.
NordVPNOur choiceDeal Save big with 68% off a two-year subscription plus 3 months free!From$ 3.199.3- Fast and large worldwide network of VPN servers
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- Download the VPN and install it on your favorite device for live-streaming Thursday Night Football. NordVPN works on all major operating systems on desktop and mobile. Simply follow the on-screen instructions. You can also install it on Smart TVs.
- Log in to the account you created at sign-up. You should have a username and, ideally, a secure password.
- Connect to a server in the United States. Since you’ll be unblocking Thursday Night Football, you’ll need a reliable American server. Although the physical distance of the server isn’t a deal-breaker, you can connect to one closest to your real location — i.e., connect to Miami if you’re in South America, Los Angeles if you’re in Asia, or New York if you’re in Europe, etc. For more information, check out our guide on U.S. IP addresses.
- Fire up your VPN. Now that you’re connected to the U.S., you can take the final step.
- Navigate to Amazon Prime Video and start streaming NFL Thursday Night Football. Every game this season starts at 8:15 PM (EST), so just log in to your account, and you’re ready to go!
How to Watch NFL Thursday Night Football for Free
Essentially, there are two ways you can live stream Thursday Night Football for free, and one is more legit than the other:
- Watch TNF with a free Amazon Prime trial: The most straightforward way to watch NFL Thursday Night Football for free is to get a free Amazon Prime membership trial. With 30-days of free streaming, you’ll be able to catch at least four weeks’ worth of games.
- Unofficial free NFL streaming sites: If you’re looking to sniff out some unofficial free Thursday Night Football streams, there are plenty of options. Check out our guide on the Best Free NFL streaming sites if you’re interested in going this route. You should check your local laws to ensure you’re allowed to watch these NFL live streams.
Just remember that the second option will be a little more tricky. Since Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service, their exclusive broadcast will be just that — exclusive. This brings us to our next point.
Do I Need a VPN to Watch NFL Thursday Night Football?
You’ll need a VPN to access TNF on Amazon Prime Video outside the U.S. If you stumble across a free live stream of NFL Thursday Night Football elsewhere, it will almost certainly be an unapproved broadcast.
A lot of free sports streaming websites operate in a legal gray area. What might be legal and available to watch on one country’s server would be considered piracy in another. Even the most casual sports streamer would warn you never to venture onto these streaming sites without a VPN. By masking or changing your real IP (true location) and encrypting your internet traffic, whatever you do during an internet session becomes private and more anonymous.
When you’re using a VPN, hackers lurking on insecure web domains or public Wi-Fi networks won’t be able to decipher the contents of your internet traffic. Other interested third parties — such as internet service providers (ISPs), online trackers, or government agents — won’t know what happened during a session.
Since the best VPN providers have strict no-logging policies and are based in countries with privacy-friendly laws, you know you’ll be safe and anonymous wherever you go online.
Are Free VPNs Useful for NFL Thursday Night Football?
While free VPNs certainly have some usefulness, using one to stream NFL Thursday Night Football won’t make the cut. Here are a few issues you’ll most likely have to contend with:
- Server location and reliability: Free VPNs (or “freemium” tiered services) typically have a limited number of servers. You’ll need ultra-fast streaming servers in the United States to get Amazon Prime Video. Even if a provider has servers in the country, they might easily be recognized by VPN blockades.
- Speed and bandwidth: Whether it’s overloaded servers or bandwidth throttling and poor connections, many free VPNs will offer a subpar viewing experience. Live streaming sports with constant buffering, lagging, or freezing can be frustrating.
- Data limits: Some free VPN providers seem to have it all. You’re unblocking sites with ease, you’ve got lightning-fast connections and plenty of servers to choose from to boot. But you’ll soon get a notification saying you’ve exhausted your 1 GB data limit (sometimes as low as 500MB). Live streaming HD video eats up a lot of data, so we doubt you’d make it through the first quarter of Thursday’s game without having to pay for extra data and upgrades.
- Logs and security: Even if you’re not using free sports streaming sites that operate in shady territories, it’s always a good idea to safeguard your online privacy. Many free VPN providers have been busted over the years for collecting users’ personal data and selling it to brokers. Only a select few providers made our list of the best no-log VPNs, which means many providers log some data, even when they claim to practice no logging.
Take our advice and try out NordVPN for 30 days. You’ll get a month’s worth of premium VPN for free. Just cancel if you think it’s not for you.
NFL Thursday Night Football 2023: Full Schedule
Whether you’re unblocking Amazon Prime Video or using free sports streaming sites, make sure you don’t miss a single game this season. Here’s a full breakdown of the NFL Thursday Night Football season.
| NFL Week | Date | Matchup |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Sept. 14 | Minnesota Vikings vs. Philadelphia Eagles |
| 3 | Sept. 21 | New York Giants vs. San Francisco 49ers |
| 4 | Sept. 28 | Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers |
| 5 | Oct. 5 | Chicago Bears vs. Washington Commanders |
| 6 | Oct. 12 | Denver Broncos vs. Kansas City Chiefs |
| 7 | Oct. 19 | Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New Orleans Saints |
| 8 | Oct. 26 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Buffalo Bills |
| 9 | Nov. 2 | Tennessee Titans vs. Pittsburgh Steelers |
| 10 | Nov. 9 | Carolina Panthers vs. Chicago Bears |
| 11 | Nov. 16 | Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens |
| 12 | Nov. 24 | Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets |
| 13 | Nov. 30 | Seattle Seahawks vs. Dallas Cowboys |
| 14 | Dec. 7 | New England Patriots vs. Pittsburgh Steelers |
| 15 | Dec. 14 | Los Angeles Chargers vs. Las Vegas Raiders |
| 16 | Dec. 21 | New Orleans Saints vs. Los Angeles Rams |
| 17 | Dec. 28 | New York Jets vs. Cleveland Browns |
Can’t Get Enough Online Sports?
If you’re into all things sports, you’ve found yourself in the right place. While Thursday Night Football is one of our favorites to catch online, plenty of sports also deserve your attention. If you’re looking for tips on how to live stream your favorite sporting events for free, check out the guides below.
- UFC: Into UFC? Check out our piece on how to watch UFC pay-per-view fights (free streams and discounts).
- NBA: Read up on how to watch NBA basketball online with some international money-saving deals on League Pass.
- F1: We’ve also broken down how to access international broadcasts and watch Formula 1 racing for free.
- MotoGP: How about premier motorcycle racing? There are plenty of international streams available to watch MotoGP for free.
- NHL: Professional hockey fans can also stream NHL games from anywhere.
Got questions about live streaming Thursday Night Football? Just click a question below to find out the answer.
NFL Thursday Night Football is only available on Amazon Prime Video for the 2023-2024 season. You’ll need a Prime account to catch the action. If you’re living or traveling outside the U.S., you can use NordVPN to make sure you never miss a thing.
Yes, the exclusive new home of NFL Thursday Night Football is on Amazon Prime Video in 2023. So if you have a Prime account, you’ve already got full access to every game.
Only NFL Thursday Night Football games are available on Amazon Prime Video for the 2023-2024 season. They’re included in the price of an Amazon Prime membership. Amazon Prime Video won’t have other NFL broadcasts like Sunday games or Monday Night Football.
