Tech giants like Amazon (AMZN) have been jockeying over the last few years for the rights to livestream sports on their platforms. With a glut of streaming options available, people have fewer reasons to watch live TV. Sports is the valuable exception.
Amazon wants to come out on top in the era of cord-cutting and live sports is another way for the online retailer to incentivize consumers to sign up with Amazon Prime, the yearly subscription service that gives users access to free two-day shipping and other features that are otherwise not available, including Prime Video. The company has been investing more in Prime Video, which hosts exclusive, prestige content and livestreams of football, soccer, tennis and volleyball.
Now it appears that Amazon is ready to do more with live sports by taking on the biggest market in the country.
On Thursday, Amazon secured rights to the YES Network, the country’s most-watched regional sports network. It’s the home to live games and programming focused around New York teams including the Brooklyn Nets, the WNBA’s New York Liberty and most importantly, the New York Yankees. Amazon’s stake in YES is small but meaningful because the Bronx Bombers are more than just a regional team. With star players like Aaron Judge and 27 World Series championships, the Yankees are an iconic global brand.
Amazon executives spoke about their ambitions in live sports at the Hashtag Sports conference in New York City in June. Felicia Yue, senior manager at Amazon Prime Video, positioned the company as a perfect destination for sports viewing in the cord-cutting era.
“As everybody knows, the younger generations are all about streaming. They don’t have a cable package. They aren’t going to turn on a Fox package, but they might turn on Thursday Night Football on Amazon,” Yue said at the conference.
Amazon revealed its interest in live sports in 2017 when it partnered with the NFL to stream “Thursday Night Football,” making that season’s games available to anyone with an Amazon Prime subscription. The one-year deal included 10 games and cost Amazon $50 million. The NFL renewed the deal with Amazon for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Amazon has also offered programming from other sports leagues. In the US, Prime Video also livestreams professional volleyball with the AVP league and the Laver Cup tennis tournament. In the U.K., Amazon also has exclusive rights to the 2019 US Open tennis tournament as part of a five-year deal. Starting this December, Amazon will offer 20 Premier league games.