Amazon will be the first streaming service to show live Premier League football.getty images
Amazon will become the first internet streaming service to show live Premier League football "in a move that threatens to transform the broadcasting landscape in British sport," according to Sam Dean of the London TELEGRAPH. Consumers will have to pay as much as £1,000 ($1,340) to watch all live matches in the '19-20 season after Amazon "shattered the long-standing duopoly on Premier League rights held by Sky and BT." The American company, which secured one of two packages of live action from '19-22, will show an entire round of midweek games and all 10 matches on Boxing Day. The sale of the final two packages confirmed the Premier League will receive its "first ever revenue cut on domestic rights" as it faces a "shortfall" of up to £500M ($670) compared to the previous broadcasting deal. On that basis, the EPL's total domestic broadcasting income for the three seasons will be £4.64B ($6.2B), a £496M ($665.6M) decrease from the previous broadcasting cycle (TELEGRAPH, 6/7).
NO EXTRA COST: In London, Mark Sweney reported Amazon said that the matches would be available to UK Prime Video members "at no extra cost to their existing subscription." BT bought the other remaining rights package, paying £90M ($121M) over three years for exclusive live coverage of 20 midweek Premier League games a season. From Aug. '19, BT will show 52 live games a season at a cost of £975M ($1.3B) over three years, and Sky 128, paying £3.75B ($5B). Amazon has been in negotiations about the packages for months -- against rivals including BT -- "after the completion of the sale of the most valuable TV rights in February" (GUARDIAN, 6/7). In London, Ahmed, Fildes & Ram reported Amazon and other technology groups are "increasingly pushing into live sport, challenging traditional broadcasters which have used them to underpin their subscription packages to consumers." Earlier this year, Amazon outbid Sky to win exclusive U.K. rights for men’s tennis world tour matches in a deal worth a reported $40M, while in the U.S. it has a $130M deal with the NFL to screen Thursday night games for the next two seasons (FINANCIAL TIMES, 6/7). In London, Matt Hughes reported BT's successful bid for the package gives the broadcaster the right to show five matches from the split weekend and 15 from two midweek programs, taking the total number of matches it will screen from the '19-20 season to 52. Sky Sports remains the EPL's main broadcaster with 128 matches, although it could face a "future challenge from Amazon" if the online company's first foray into the market is successful (LONDON TIMES, 6/7).
EXPERT OPINIONS: Execs and analysts from the media weighed in on the Amazon news:
Prime Video VP in Europe Jay Marine said that supporters of every club "will now have the chance to watch their team." Marine: "We are always looking to add more value to Prime, and we're delighted to now offer, for the first time, live Premier League matches to Prime members at no extra cost to their membership" (London INDEPENDENT, 6/7).
CSS Insight analyst Paolo Pescatore said that the Premier League would be "delighted to have secured a leading online giant as a partner," but it was "a headache for fans who would need to sign up with another provider." Pescatore: "Undoubtedly, Amazon is pulling together a strong and growing set of live TV rights to complement its vast content relationship. But we should not forget that Sky is still the dominant provider and the home of Premier League football" (REUTERS, 6/7).
Liberum media analyst Ian Whittaker said, "The main thing is to drive uptake of Prime. The rights are being used to lock people in to Prime and get them to spend more generally."
Ampere Analysis media analyst Richard Broughton said that the small number of games acquired by Amazon means the move is not an "immediate threat to Sky and BT." Broughton: "It's not going to cause anyone to cancel their Sky Sports or BT Sport subscription. But longer-term, it means Amazon will be able to make a more informed decision in the next round as to what the rights could mean for the Prime business" (BLOOMBERG, 6/7).
BBC sports correspondent Richard Conway wrote these two remaining packages of rights were "specifically designed to appeal to the internet giants such as Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Facebook and Google as online streaming continues to rise in popularity." The only problem is that "most of those companies failed to take the Premier League's bait."
Football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University Rob Wilson wrote it makes "complete sense for one of the online streaming services to pick up a Premier League package." The infrastructure and market potential "needs testing and this gives Amazon an early mover advantage." They "can test the concept at a lower cost to see what audiences they can generate" (BBC, 6/7).
Cake Managing Partner Richard Gillis branded the deal "a moment to note" and said that the Premier League "will help secure viewers on Amazon's Prime streaming platform." Gillis: "The assumption for a long time is that the tech brands will enter the sports market if they are in content. At the end of the road is always live sport because it remains a robust way of delivering audience. ... The caveat is that it is only streaming a few games, but the central point is sport is better at normalizing consumer behavior than anything else."
Audience analyst of sport & entertainment at EntSight James Box said that the U.K. Premier League audience is "actually slightly less likely to engage with online subscription services compared to live broadcast television." Box: "When focusing on the behaviors and preferences of the younger fanbase, we see they are more likely than average to engage with a service such as Amazon Prime Video."
We Are Social Sport Dir Joe Weston said, "For months, rumors have circulated that one of the major tech giants -- Amazon, Google, Facebook or Netflix -- would shake up the Premier League rights battle and make a real statement. And now it seems the first of them is finally ready to throw its hat into the ring" (THE DRUM, 6/7).
ON THE TUBE: CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla said of the deal, “Some said the Premier League news is historic because these are exclusive rights and not a simulcast.” NYU Prof. of Marketing Scott Galloway: “The last brick in the firewall, keeping the mongrels from invading the broadcast advertising industrial complex, was sports. At every upfront, ‘We'll always have sports, they don't skip the ads.’ But none of these leagues are, in any way, loyal to any network. They go to the highest bidder and nobody watches the Super Bowl because it's on NBC. They just watch the Super Bowl, so when you have portable franchises like the European league and UEFA and World Cup, it goes to the highest bidder. Another question: who will be the highest bidders for any content over the next decade? It will go to the deep pockets. It's going to be Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. This is literally breaching the firewall of the collapse of the advertising industrial complex. You're about to see the biggest sporting event broadcasts going to big tech where there will be, by the way, no advertising.”
Galloway said of the return on investment to Amazon, “The metric is how many rolls of paper towels they sell and that’s what’s so disruptive about this because they're using content to create intensity across the best loyalty program in the world, which is Amazon Prime. ... As long as they create that intensity and they go from 62% to 64% of households, 82% of wealthy households, that content investment can be monetized more easily. The networks have to make money off these things.” CNBC’s Julia Boorstin said “We’re really going to start to see a tipping point and the Premier League could be a really big deal in the U.K.” (“Squawk Alley,” CNBC, 6/7).
