Amazon has reached a deal with the NFL to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games during the upcoming season for a reported $50 million, outbidding Google, Twitter and Facebook, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Recode. The company confirmed in an email to GeekWire that it has won the streaming rights to Thursday Night Football games, but official details are still forthcoming. Update: Amazon and the NFL issued a press release on Wednesday confirming the earlier reports. According to the reports, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant will stream the games exclusively to Amazon Prime members, who pay a $99/year fee to belong to… Read More
If you’re an eSports skeptic, hold onto your hats: the NBA announced this week that it is adding eSports teams to every NBA franchise in the country, in partnership with Take-Two, makers of the popular NBA 2K video game series. Yes, each NBA team will soon have its own professional gamers in addition to pro ballers. While it might not get hardcore NBA fans excited, the move could be a major-money maker for the league and a boost for the still-emerging world of professional video game playing. And as you’ll hear on this episode of GeekWire’s Week in Geek podcast, at least one Seattleite… Read More
Amazon wants to stream sports with worldwide followings such as soccer, tennis, rugby, golf and auto-racing, in a move that could help the online retail giant grow its appeal abroad, according to a report from Bloomberg. Amazon struck out in its quest to land an NFL streaming deal, with Twitter ultimately securing an agreement to air 10 games this season. Amazon is pursuing other U.S. sports like basketball and baseball, Bloomberg reports, but exclusive rights contracts with networks could make it tough for Amazon to get into those sports. Amazon could also come to agreements with league streaming networks like MLB.tv to add them to its $99-per-year Prime subscription service.… Read More
