Amazon winning Premier League soccer rights shows the service's growing television clout around the globe, The New York Times reported.
The online retail giant has been pushing the boundaries into the entertainment industry by streaming original televisions shows and movies. The deal to broadcast games from Britain's top soccer league seems to be another huge move as it beat out NBC and Disney for the rights, the Times said.
Amazon will share the Premier League television rights with Sky Sports and BT Sport, which will carry the bulk of the 180 matches, the newspaper wrote. Amazon will broadcast 20 matches on its Prime service and includes exclusive broadcast rights for the matches it shows.
"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," Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video in Europe, said in an Amazon statement Thursday.
"The Premier League is the most watched sports league in the world. Over these two December fixture rounds Prime members will be able to watch every team, every game, so no matter which Premier League team you support, you're guaranteed to see them play live on Prime Video," Marine continued.
Amazon touted its growing list of live sports events in its statement that included the U.S. Open Tennis, ATP World Tour Tennis events, and some NFL games.
The New York Times wrote that the Premier League auctioned broadcast rights in February with Sky Sports and BT Sport winning larger partial rights at the time. Amazon and Premier League declined to say how much the streaming service paid for the rights.
Sky paid $4.8 billion over three years for its matches, the Times noted. BT Sport said in a statement earlier this year that it will pay $395 million per year over three years.
Amazon's success appeared to leapfrog digital companies as players in competing for the rights of major sports leagues and those leagues willingness to turn over at least some part of their broadcasting rights to such services where they have been reluctant before, the Times reported.
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