Amazon Prime strengthens ties with TNT Sports and DAZN ahead of ...
Amazon Prime viewers in the UK will be able to watch the entirety of the Uefa Champions League and subscribe to the National Football League’s (NFL) Game Pass International streaming service on a single platform thanks to new deals with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and DAZN.
The tech giant is in the first season of a new three-year UK£1.5 billion (US$1.9 billion) contract that allows it to show an exclusive live first-pick game from European soccer’s top-tier club competition every Tuesday, sharing the rights with WBD’s TNT Sports.
To address the issue of fragmentation – from both a usability and billing perspective – subscribers to both services will be able to switch between matches from each broadcaster via the Prime Video application.
The capability is, however, contingent on users subscribing to WBD’s Discovery+ streaming service via Amazon’s platform.
The deal will also see TNT Sports Box Office events available on Amazon’s own pay-per-view (PPV) platform, including the upcoming non-exclusive boxing bout between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois next month.
Another partner for the PPV offering is DAZN. By expanding its relationship with Amazon to include NFL Game Pass as a Prime Video add-on, DAZN dramatically expands the reach of the offering and potential revenues for both itself and the league.
For Amazon, this builds on similar distribution agreements with Premier Sports and others, and strengthens its bid to become a sports broadcasting and wider entertainment aggregator.
The deal also cements Amazon’s credentials as a major destination for UK-based fans of North American sports. It has the rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football and, from 2025, will show 87 National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season games and a selection of playoff matchups, along with a selection of Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) games.
“We recognise sports rights are fragmented across different services and this can cause frustration,” said Chris Bird, managing director for Prime Video UK at Amazon. “We want to offer the widest range of sport in a single place with a single user interface and payment system.
“We know many of our viewers want to watch more than one [Uefa Champions League] match. We believe [these integrations] will make Prime Video a home for sports fans.”
Amazon has been a domestic broadcast partner for the Premier League since 2019, showing two full rounds of fixtures each season. This arrangement will come to an end after the current campaign.
Acquiring regular live soccer throughout the season, as opposed to two blocks around Christmas time, signals a shit in priority from customer acquisition towards customer retention.
Amazon’s debut season as a Uefa Champions League broadcaster will see it bring together many of the on-screen talents from its Premier League coverage, as well as elements from its presentation team in Germany and Italy where it is also a Uefa partner.
New technical features include AI-powered video match recaps that will bring late joiners up to speed with the action, an interactive timeline to rewatch goals and other major incidents, and High Dynamic Range (HDR) picture quality for matches were Amazon is the host broadcaster.
“We’ve learned a lot about our technology and production approach [with the Premier League over the past six seasons] and how to give our viewers the best possible viewing experience,” said Alex Green, managing director of Prime Video Sport, international, at Amazon.
“We want to deliver an excellent viewing experience. This means a crisp, high-resolution picture, great sound quality, and minimal latency so that you really are as close to the action as possible. Most households will see the action on their screens less than ten seconds after it happens, which is typically faster than broadcast television.
“We’ll continue to innovate throughout the season.”
