Amazon Looking Into Buying Sports Broadcasting Rights

Amazon continues to break new horizons in media and consumerism. The giant streaming and product service (and the one corporation I wish would adopt me and make me its official adult child) is apparently looking into sports broadcasting rights to add to their already growing list of video offerings.

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The news is still fresh and details are slow in coming out, but it seems that Amazon’s strategy is to pursue broadcasting rights for sports and conferences that are largely ignored in the mainstream. They’ll also be looking to snap up game rights some of the larger networks aren’t using.

Amazon execs have asked Univision about producing Mexican soccer league games and have approached other networks like ESPN to air leftover live games from some of their niche Russian hockey league games and leftover live games that were never aired.

Reports are saying that Amazon has also looked into licensing the NBA Live pass to air out-of-market-games but it is likely the NBA will pass on that option as they still have very lucrative deals with traditional cable well into the 2020’s.

This seems like a very wise move. Its placing the same bets down the road that ESPN did back in the early days of cable. By broadcasting college sports and smaller venues, the sports broadcasters built an empire that soon came to dominate and define sports broadcasting and analysis as we know it. Amazon seems to be adopting the strategy and adding to it.

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According the the WSJ, Amazon isn’t the only one making moves into sports broadcasting. Twitter paid $10 million to stream 10 NFL games this season. They’ve already streamed the Jets vs. the Bills and Facebook may not be far behind.

It seems like a very smart strategy. With so many options available for steaming entertainment the culture of televised entertainment is rapidly changing. Cable dinosaurs and old-school production houses have been slow to change with the consumption of entertainment. If they don’t make adjustments soon, Amazon and other social media giants may very will be the next frontier in major sports broadcasting, with the ability to give the people what they want, exactly when they want it.

 

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