SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
From the 2019-2020 season, it appears that Amazon is aiming to become a major new force in the world of Premier League TV rights.
A whole host of digital media outlets are looking to test the waters with a bid for Premier League content, however after its purchase of the ATP tennis tournaments, Amazon looks more likely to succeed with an audacious football bid than Facebook, Google or Twitter.
It’s anticipated that the next auction will take place in 2018, with speculation suggesting that Amazon has signalled its intention to bid for a significant part of the rights.
The move would follow on from approaches by Amazon and Netflix to host behind the scenes documentaries based around Premier League clubs.
Significantly for English football is the financial capability of Amazon could lead to another hike in TV revenue for Premier League clubs, something that was unlikely to have happened had the bidding process remained a two horse race between Sky and BT.
Having recently purchased Whole Foods for $13.7bn Amazon continues to go from strength to strength, the Seattle based company was even voted as the world’s third most innovative company by Forbes.
Furthermore, Amazon has proven itself to be a capable streaming service with the success of Amazon Prime, which is in direct competition with Netflix to be the most powerful streaming service.
The financial capabilities of Amazon mean that Sky and BT are unable to compete, which could lead to the Premier League broadcasting rights being blown wide open.
In the first half of 2017, Sky’s operating profits were down 6%, which was largely a result of the 83% increase in its Premier League football bill that saw Sky paying an eye-watering paying £11million a match.
Unsurprisingly, it’s something that has left the broadcaster wary of going back into the market for Premier League rights, meaning that when the current deal expires there is a potential gap in the market for an alternative digital outlet.
