Amazon remains the most compelling storyline in sports media as TV networks prepare to go through the next round of what’s expected to be a hotly contested sports rights bidding process.
With a market cap of more than $1 trillion, it’s clear that the company can afford the rights for any sport it wants. By comparison, Disney’s market cap is around $255 billion, a number that seems tiny side-by-side with Amazon.
The question is whether Amazon really is interested in paying for rights to top-tier sports in the United States.
The reasons why leagues want Amazon involved in the bidding process are obvious. Just the threat of Amazon can serve to keep rights high for mid-tier to bigger leagues and conferences.
Amazon counts around 150 million Prime subscribers worldwide and has a technical streaming savvy that could attract younger demos that aren’t watching traditional television anymore.
But Amazon so far has not approached the market as a company that is interested in dominating the sports rights marketplace. In just the past few months alone, for example, it passed on the chance to grab the PGA Tour’s digital rights and the UEFA Champions League digital rights in the United States.
Donoghue looks for sports rights that enhance the benefits of being an Amazon Prime member.espn images
Surely, Amazon would have picked up one of those sports if it was really serious about wading into the sports rights marketplace, right?
“That’s what confuses people,” Marie Donoghue, Amazon’s vice president of global sports video, told me during NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago recently. “We are not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to sports.”
Donoghue, who also was spotted a week earlier in Miami for the Super Bowl, has been visible in the sports community since joining Amazon a year and a half ago.
Anyone who thinks that Amazon would approach the sports rights marketplace the same way that a traditional media company would doesn’t understand how the tech giant looks at the business.
Take its 2018 deal to show 20 Premier League matches per season in Britain. The agreement — reported to be $116 million over three years — had Amazon stream 10 matches in early December and 10 more on Boxing Day, all exclusive to Amazon Prime customers. The Dec. 26 slate featured six matches that were streamed simultaneously.
“The first two days of the Premier League matches were the two highest-ever Prime sign-up days in the U.K. for us,” Donoghue said.
Amazon has pursued a different model with “Thursday Night Football,” which is reported to cost around $65 million per year. Rather than carrying the game exclusively, Amazon and Twitch share it with two TV channels (Fox and NFL Network) and mobile outlets.
“Offering ‘Thursday Night Football’ games in a tricast model drives great benefits to our U.S. consumers,” Donoghue said, allowing Amazon to reach new audiences and provide different audio feeds.
Amazon streamed 10 Premier League matches on the day after Christmas, including Aston Villa’s 1-0 win against Norwich City.getty images
Amazon picked up exclusive rights to UEFA Champions League in Germany as part of a three-year deal starting in 2021, amounting to 16 matches per season. And it picked up the second of two French Open packages in France as part of another deal that starts in 2021.
It shows NBA G League games on Twitch and has a deal with WTA in Britain.
Plus, Amazon gives its subscribers access to sports through channels on Prime Video, and sells out-of-market packages for NBA League Pass and MLB TV.
“We’re not the same as the other services out there,” Donoghue said. “Amazon Prime is a membership service. You get benefits for being a member. Prime Video is one benefit you get for being a member. My job is to figure out how to use live sports to enhance that membership.”
For Donoghue’s team, those enhancements come from more than just producing video around the games — although that still plays a part. Donoghue highlighted the fact that Amazon’s Premier League deal in Britain marked the first time U.K. consumers could see every match on a given day.
But Donoghue also said that Amazon provided more enhancements, such as a Red Zone-style Goal Show and “near instantaneous” highlights. It offered different audio tracks for games, including one called “Sounds of the Game” that had no announcers.
“We were surprised by how many fans were delighted by that,” Donoghue said. “It makes sense if you’ve ever gone to a Premier League match — the songs and the chants. We didn’t even promote it, and fans found it on their own.”
Some of those innovations — such as multiple audio feeds — mimic what Amazon is doing with the NFL. But even with the NFL it has incorporated commerce tabs into the game, allowing fans to make purchases during the game.
“We start with the customer and work backwards,” Donoghue said. “We don’t always know what the customer is going to like. When we have data, we look at it. Sometimes it’s a clear idea of what works and what doesn’t work. Sometimes our execution can be improved to get better data. A lot of times, we have to make decisions without data. If it’s good for the consumer, we’ll consider it.”
