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Amazon enters the sport and rocks everything – MOW

Amazon could outrun the competition and become king of football streaming and pay-per-view platforms. A revolution that is in the air in view of the tender for the assignment of television rights for the new three-year period of the Champions League. The only risk? Competition from Disney +, while Amazon focuses on baseball. All aware that, as Amazon CEO Andy Jessy says, “live sport is a unique asset”

Lelement to keep in mind is the announcement for the assignment of television rights of the new triennium of the Champions League, from 2024 to 2027, which will be launched in the coming months. It is on that terrain that Amazon’s new application for world sport streaming could compete, if it were ready in good time. In recent days it has been read – the anticipation was from the American site The Information – of the Amazon’s willingness to create an app reserved only for sports. Especially live streaming, to support, indeed enhance the already considerable and high quality offer provided by Prime Video, which only counts in Italy (AgCom data up to September 2022) over 6.4 million subscribers, behind Netflix. In reality, there are still no certainties about the times and ways of launching the platform, but according to the CEO of Amazon, Andy Jessy, “Live sport represents a unique resource”. The idea would be to create an app with space for live streaming, with a section for on-demand content. Thus the American multinational is working on its restructuring, anticipated in recent days by the Wall Street Journal, which provides for a spending review, with a hiring freeze.

LAmazon’s app reserved exclusively for live sports would be for sure a step towards the revolution of the sector. And it would touch, perhaps it is better to write to tear apart, the competition from sport on TV, both in the microcosm of the applications and for pay per view. Because Amazon owns the potential to outperform the market and take the most important events. Above all, having shown that he knows how to produce them and intercept the taste of his subscribers. In Italy, at least so far, it has been so for Champions League Wednesday. Since the beginning of last season, Amazon has been broadcasting the cartel match of the day, obtaining great results between ratings and criticism.

Mat the offering of the colossus of Jeff Bezos goes ben oltre Serie A. Until 2025, Amazon will broadcast 20 Premier League games a year, 11 of which were aired on Prime on Boxing Day, which is the preferred window for the English who enjoy Christmas in front of their TVs and smartphones. The service does not include additional costs for Prime service subscribers, while the integration for non-subscribers costs 79 pounds per year (89 euros). From England to Spain, since August Amazon has secured the rights to the second division of Spanish football, La Liga SmartBank, together with Movistar, Orange, Telecable, Euskaltel, R, Virgin Telco, MasMovil, Yoigo and Guuk, all broadcasts present in the list of those who bought the broadcasting rights. Since 2020, Amazon Prime has also broadcast the Bundesliga, the German championship, by sharing the match package with Dazn. Over the years, the e-commerce giant has therefore developed a strategy for place in the main European tournaments. He planted the foundation for his streaming sports channel.

AGoing beyond European football, for Amazon the challenge comes from a compatriot competitor. There is indeed Disney+which became the app with the most users in the world in November 2022 (236 million and above all 164 million subscribers), placing itself behind Netflix (223 million), which dominates the US sports segmentowning ESPN+, sort of Sports bible on tv for Americans. There is scope for the challenge on sport, but Amazon, if the sport app were to become a reality, will also have to compete against YouTube, which won the Sunday NFL Ticket: it will broadcast the Sunday games of the most followed sports league by Americans. And then, there is Apple which in March secured itself for Apple TV (without the obligation to take out a subscription) on Friday Night Baseball, Major Soccer League’s prime-time baseball. Apple has also invested a lot in Major Soccer League matches. And then there is Facebook-Metawith Mls and baseball highlights.

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