$$$$$ - Amazon is going after a market that Netflix refuses to touch, wants sports streaming deal!!!

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Amazon is going after a market that Netflix refuses to touch

• Nathan McAlone
  
• 2h

REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

Amazon is vying for video rights on a "wide range" of sports, from French Open tennis to golf to car racing,according to Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw, who cites people with knowledge of the matter.

The theme: Amazon wants sports with global appeal, Bloomberg's sources said.

Amazon is also interested in marquee US sports like basketball and baseball, but unfortunately the rights for those are locked up pretty tight.

There could be ways around that,Bloomberg notes. Amazon could do deals that offered league streaming packages as an add-on to Prime, like it currently does with Showtime. The MLB, for instance, offers a single-team streaming package for $84.99 per year. Or Amazon could do deals that would give Prime members limited access as a way to promote and upsell the league's own offering.



Amazon has even mulled the idea of snagging enough live sports programming to make an entirely separate streaming package,according to Bloomberg.

Clearly the details have yet to be worked out on how Amazon will tackle sports, but the fact that it's being so seriously pursued in significant. Amazon has been ramping up spending on TV shows and movies for its Prime offering, which competes with Netflix.

In July, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said that Amazon would "nearly double" its investment in all types of video, while "tripling" the amount of Amazon's original content, over the rest of 2016. This mirrors Netflix's own gargantuan spending on TV shows and movies, particularly original ones.

But live sports would be something new.

Netflix executives have repeatedly said they have no interest in live sports programming, and that it simply wouldn't jive with the nature of their service. Netflix is all about on-demand, and sports are appointment viewing.

Amazon has also been rumored, for awhile, to be creating its own cable-replacement live TV service. If the company brings it to market, it will compete with upcoming offerings from the likes of Hulu and AT&T, along with established "skinny bundle" player Sling TV, and Sony's PlayStation Vue.

 

[simonmarcel]

By the title, I thought it would be porn.

 

[Mask]

By the title, I thought it would be porn.

Well they probably not gonna use Amazon

 

[Mask]

One of the great things about being an Amazon Prime member is that Amazon has more or less kept the price of an annual membership reasonable (it’s still less than $9/month) while simultaneously working hard to deliver more perks for existing and new subscribers. In turn, it’s not at all surprising that Amazon Prime continues to grow by leaps and bounds. According to recent data compiled by Cowen & Co., Amazon’s Prime service now boasts upwards of 50 million subscribers, representing an impressive 23% increase year-over-year.


As part of Amazon’s ongoing efforts to make Prime an all-encompassing service with perks designed to appeal to everyone, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Jeff Bezos and co. are now exploring the possibility of rolling out a premium professional sports package underneath its Prime umbrella. And speaking to Amazon’s grand ambition, the online retail giant has reportedly held talks with nearly all of the major U.S. sports leagues, including the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.

Amazon has also been eyeing more niche sports as well, having held talks with the World Surf League, the National Lacrosse League, cricket sports leagues abroad, a handful of college sport broadcast networks and more.

The WSJ reports:

With at least some leagues, including the NBA, Amazon has floated creating a premium, exclusive sports package that would accompany a Prime membership, though the details are unclear, the people said. A premium sports package could entice new subscribers to Prime and to Amazon’s potential “skinny bundle” of live channels online.

Amazon executives have even canvassed traditional TV networks for game rights they aren’t using. They have asked if Univision Communications Inc. would consider producing and packaging the extra Mexican soccer league games that it has rights to but doesn’t air, one of the people said.

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Amazon also is seeking sports packages like NFL Game Pass, which shows replays of matchups, to sell to Prime members as add-on channels, the people said.

With skinny bundles reportedly positioned to replace existing cable packages which can often cost more than $100/month, Amazon’s move to corner the sports market is incredibly shrewd. Of course, Amazon’s mere exploration into the area doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see new deals being inked over the next few months. With sports licensing deals often costing in the billions of dollars, Amazon would have to get creative in regards to the type of content deals they’d be able to secure, especially as it pertains to the more popular sports leagues like the NFL and the NBA which already have existing deals with broadcast networks like ESPN and FOX.

No matter what develops, it’s impressive to see Amazon continually try and press forward on the entertainment front. All the while, Apple’s on strategy in the TV space appears to be nothing short of a muddled mess stuck somewhere in no man’s land.