BCCI – IPL Rights : Is Amazon eyeing Indian Premier League (IPL) and BCCI rights as they get serious about the Sports Streaming Business : Amazon’s entry into Sports Streaming is getting serious by the day. The company worldwide is gradually building its sports portfolio in various territories. In India as well the first step to take on traditional sports broadcasters Disney Star India and Sony Sports has been taken. Amazon recently got into a partnership with the New Zealand Cricket for the next 3 years.
Now the market is speculating – will Amazon make the big move ? Will they target BCCI, IPL and ICC rights which are coming up for renewals in the next 12 months ?
Amazon Prime Video country manager Gaurav Gandhi told FT that the company would consider further opportunities to secure cricket rights.
“Expanding into a space which the country loves makes sense,” said the executive.
“I do feel that it does add an interesting dimension to our overall offerings . . . We’re happy to look at each individual opportunity that goes by,” Gandhi told FT.
Amazon into Sports Streaming : Amazon getting serious about Sports Live Streaming business ?
In various territories all around the globe, amazon has been buying various key sports rights to attract audiences to AMAZON PRIME VIDEO. Just sample below –
– Before Italy, Amazon had acquired Champions League rights in Germany in 2019. Amazon had picked up the exclusive rights to 16 Champions League matches a season giving it the top pick for Tuesday night fixtures, in the group and knockout stages for three seasons from 2021-22.
– Amazon has also bought a package of 20 Premier League matches in 2019.
– Amazon has also held the broadcasting rights for audio coverage of the Bundesliga football league since 2017.
– Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). In June 2019, Amazon won four-year exclusive rights to WTA Tour events in the UK and Ireland, from 2020-24, offering up to 2,000 live and on-demand matches per year.
– In US Amazon already streams some American National Football League (NFL) matches and US Open tennis.
India now key market for Amazon & Cricket matters
Disney Star dominates cricket market in India through deals for BCCI, IPL, ICC, ACC, Cricket South Africa. With such healthy cricket portfolio, Disney Hotstar has been able to generate 28 million subscribers in India.
Amazon has 17 million subscribers for Prime Video and Netflix has 5 million, according to Media Partners Asia.
According to experts, the next leap for Amazon Prime to acquire more users can only come in if they will have some driver property in their kitty and in India Cricket drives the market.
“Cricket Rights are the best way to acquire users, eyeballs and platform like Amazon and few others will not leave the opportunity that comes next year. Sports rights are sold for a cycle of 4-5 years, once you miss the opportunity, you miss the bus. Amazon according to us will not leave such a opportunity where 3 big portfolios will be available over next 12 months”, said Ashish Chadha, CEO Sporty Solutionz (Leading sports media rights company)