CHICAGO — Just a few weeks ago, Roy Price, VP of Amazon Studios, was asked during an interview how big of a role sports could play for the company moving forward. After explaining the benefits of sports — engaging and motivating to viewers — he touched on the possibility of Amazon streaming more live events. “I think it’s an opportunity we’ll definitely explore.”
The exploration is soon to pick up steam in a big way as Amazon Prime will stream its first NFL Thursday Night Football game in just under two weeks.
“We’re now expanding into live streaming sports,” Amazon Head of Marketing & Product Management Brian Finegan said Wednesday at the SFIA Industry Leaders Summit. “I don’t know if you guys saw the Thursday Night Football deal that came out, first game is 9/28 — Bears/Packers. You can watch via desktop or mobile.”
The deal making Amazon the primary rightsholder for TNF was finalized earlier this year. Prime replaced Twitter, which streamed the games during the 2016 season.
Finegan explained that a big reason streaming is so important is that it will drive Prime customers in to Amazon via the channel they’re using. “Bears/Packers are playing each other, we can serve up Bears/Packers gear, we can also serve up products that our athletes are using in the game. We can do that simultaneously with the game and we can do that with our own site.”
Amazon’s commercial for Thursday Night Football is an outstanding nature video pic.twitter.com/2R9ONMCJZ4
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) September 12, 2017
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Gaining streaming rights to TNF is just the tip of the sports iceberg for Amazon. It was recently announced that it’ll be producing an all-access series on Michigan football’s season. Set to stream in January 2018, the docu-series will cover each part of the Wolverines’ ongoing 2017 campaign.
Amazon is also seeking the rights to stream the ATP World Tour in the U.K.
“I don’t know anything about the ATP, but that may or may not have happened,” Price said at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.