Amazon Sees Best NFL Start Ever, Prime Video Hits Profitability: Are Investors Undervaluing Streaming?

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is trading lower Friday after the company missed analyst estimates for revenue and earnings per share in the third quarter. While there were some items of concern in the report and management commentary, investors may be missing one of the strongest quarters for the company’s streaming and entertainment segment.

• Amazon.com shares are experiencing downward pressure. Why is AMZN stock trading lower?

Prime Video Undervalued

Amazon’s Prime Video unit doesn’t get the same attention as the commerce and AWS segments, but management commentary during the conference call highlights an important business.

"Prime Video has emerged as a significant business with a revenue run rate in the tens of billions of dollars and now profitable in its own right," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said during the company’s conference call.

Jassy highlighted content like "Carrie," "The Summer I Turned Pretty," "The Boys," "Off Campus," “Reacher" and "Fallout."

The CEO also highlighted Prime Video’s growing live sports lineup.

In Amazon’s earnings press release, the company said the 2026 "Thursday Night Football" NFL games are off to their best start ever through the first six games. Now in a fifth season for Amazon, TNF games are averaging 17.7 million viewers, which is up 16% from last year’s full season average.

Amazon also recently kicked off its second season of "NBA on Prime." The season-opening doubleheader doubled the viewership of last year’s full-year average, according to the company.

Other sports rights highlighted by Jassy included NASCAR, the Master and the UEFA Champions League.

The company’s Amazon MGM segment also has passed $1.2 billion in global box office for the year, led by "Project Hail Mary," according to the earnings report.

Prime Video Hits Profitability

Amazon doesn’t break out individual Prime Video subscribers or financials on a regular basis, which makes commentary like this important for investors to recognize.

In May, the company said that Prime Video was profitable, as reported by TechCrunch. This item may have been missed by many as most streaming platforms struggle with profitability, and for Amazon the segment has been attached to being a bonus service for Amazon Prime subscribers.

Amazon has ramped up content spending for streaming and its acquisition of MGM gave it a strong library of existing and future content.

While tens of billions of dollars in revenue run rate doesn’t come close to the company’s e-commerce and AWS segments, Prime Video provides another growing segment and, potentially more important in the age of high capex spending for AI growth, the entertainment division is profitable.

So instead of having to spend money to keep the streaming business afloat, Amazon can focus on spending money on its AI efforts and let streaming now grow on its own.

Image via Shutterstock/ Anna Quelhas