Amazon reportedly paid $40M for the exclusive U.K. rights to the US Open for five years.GETTY IMAGES
Amazon "struck a deal" said to be worth $40M for the exclusive TV rights to the US Open tennis tournament in the U.K. and Ireland, according to Sweney and Gibbs of the London GUARDIAN. Amazon, which is "in talks with the Premier League to potentially stream matches" from '19-22, struck a five-year deal starting with this summer's tournament. It will be provided to subscribers to Amazon's Prime service, which costs £79 ($111.29) a year and includes access to the streaming of music, films and TV shows, plus free delivery of DVDs, CDs, books and other items purchased from the e-commerce company. Securing the rights to one of the four tennis grand slams adds to Amazon's £50M ($70.4M), five-year deal for the U.K. rights to the ATP World Tour. The deal means that Amazon can provide Prime Video subscribers access to three of the four grand slams. Amazon revealed this week that it has "more than 100 million subscribers" to its Prime service. Research group GBH Insights' Daniel Ives said, "It's a mind-boggling number that serves as a key barometer to how big Amazon's kingdom has become" (GUARDIAN, 4/19).
