NFL and Amazon Reach One-Year Streaming Deal for About $50 Million -- 2nd Update
2017年4月5日 - 9:55AM
Dow Jones News
By Joe Flint and Shalini Ramachandran
Amazon is ready for some football.
The National Football League has reached a deal to stream 10
Thursday night games with Amazon.com Inc., the online retailer that
is aggressively trying to position itself as a premier source of
entertainment content.
The one-year agreement is valued at around $50 million,
according to people familiar with the matter. That is price tag
represents a fivefold increase over the NFL's agreement with
Twitter Inc. for the same number of games last season.
While Twitter streamed the games on its free social network
site, Amazon's games will be available only to its Amazon Prime
members, who pay $99 a year for free, two-day shipping and access
to music, movies and TV shows. Amazon has more than 60 million
Prime members world-wide, according to analyst estimates.
The games will continue to be available on television as well.
The Thursday night package is split between CBS and NBC. The NFL
Network also carries Thursday night football.
Other bidders for the Thursday night streaming package included
Google, Twitter and Facebook, according to a person familiar with
the matter. A Twitter representative didn't return a request for
comment, while spokesmen for Google and Facebook declined to
comment.
For Amazon, the push into sports distinguishes its programming
ambitions from Netflix Inc. and Hulu, the online streaming service
co-owned by Walt Disney Co., 21st Century Fox, Comcast Corp. and
Time Warner Inc. Both Netflix and Hulu have steered clear of sports
and other live content.
"We're focused on bringing our customers what they want to
watch, Prime members want the NFL," said Amazon Senior Vice
President Jeff Blackburn. The large audience that the NFL attracts
will also give Amazon a promotional platform for its other content,
he added.
Amazon has also sought live game rights from various other right
holders, from the NBA to soccer and surfing leagues. With some, it
has even raised the idea of creating a premium sports package that
would be offered as an add-on for Prime members, The Wall Street
Journal reported in November.
Amazon's interest hasn't been limited to the U.S.: In India, it
threw its hat in the ring last year to bid on rights for the
popular Indian Premier League cricket games.
Amazon executives believe the e-commerce giant can uniquely
target fans with sports gear, a way that the company could
potentially justify forking over high fees for big-ticket sports.
Mr. Blackburn declined to talk specifically about how Amazon might
use the NFL to sell merchandise.
For the NFL, the Amazon deal continues its eagerness to
experiment with new distribution platforms as viewing patterns
continue to shift away from traditional media. Brian Rolapp, the
NFL's executive vice president of media said Amazon's "deep and
rich streaming experience really caught our eye."
The NFL already had a relationship with Amazon through the
program "All or Nothing" a documentary series that follows one team
through an entire season. Mr. Blackburn said it was one of Amazon's
most popular shows.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com and Shalini Ramachandran
at shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 04, 2017 20:40 ET (00:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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