Paris, France – May 28, 2012 – Stade Roland Garros: Court 1 during the 111th staging of the French Open
(Photo by Scott Clarke / ESPN Images).
From its latest streaming partnership, Amazon is making it clear that it values sports and international sports, at that.
Discovery Networks UK and the e-commerce technology giant signed a streaming partnership to bring major sporting events like the French Open, Tour de France and Olympic Games directly to Prime customers in the United Kingdom. The announcement comes a month after Amazon secured live streaming rights to Thursday Night Football games for the 2017 season.
Amazon Channels launched in the U.K. earlier this month, with Discovery providing live streams from Discovery and Eurosport Player along with hundred of hours of video on-demand content just in the U.K. The latter European subscription service will be available on its website and via its app.
This past September, Bloomberg reported that Amazon was interested in pursuing video rights to sports both domestically and internationally including rugby, tennis including the French Open, golf, soccer and auto racing. Part of that focused around the company leveraging its Prime offering, which recently hit 80 million subscribers, to provide consumers and sports fans additional content offerings. Based on the recent streaming development, it appears those initial streaming plans are starting to come to fruition.
“We are delighted to bring our premium factual and sports content to Amazon Prime members. This partnership underlines our strategic ambition to reach every person across every service and every screen,” Susanna Dinnage, President of Discovery Networks UK and Chief Content Officer, International, said in a statement.
“Amazon Prime members can now experience the shows that are loved by Discovery fans as well as enjoy an exciting line up of premium sports events — from summer favourites such as Grand Slam tennis and Cycling to next winter’s sport season and the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.”
Added Alex Green, Managing Director, Europe, Amazon Channels in a statement: “For the first time, Prime members in the UK will be able to choose to watch premium TV channels without having to sign up to a bundle or a contract, giving them the freedom to pay for only what they want to watch.
“From live sport to Bollywood, arthouse cinema to reality TV, plus award-winning TV shows from popular channels like Discovery and ITV, Amazon Channels gives power back to customers to choose exactly what they want to watch.
