- Amazon Prime Video, the e-commerce giant’s streaming service, is extending its tentacles in live sports broadcasting.
- On this occasion, it was confirmed that it has extended until 2027 the rights to the Champions League games in Italy.
- Streaming is a highly congested business segment that offers great investment opportunities in the medium and long term.
Amazon retains the rights to the Champions League in Italy until 2027. The ecommerce and entertainment giant has owned the audiovisual rights to the competition for two years and will now provide 18 matches of Italy’s competing clubs, from the group stage to the semifinals.
This is yet another bet by the U.S. company on live sports, as it has already done with the French league games.
Amazon announced that it will continue to own the rights to the Champions League for Italian teams for the seasons between 2024 and 2027, a service it already had and which gives Prime Video the opportunity to broadcast up to 18 live matches each season.
The streaming platform will broadcast all matches played by Italian clubs in this cup, from the group stage to the semis. The remaining matches between teams from other countries will be broadcast by the British media and telecommunications company Sky.
From the 24/25 season, UEFA’s most important club cup will increase the number of participating teams to 36, and there will also be a new play-off that increases the number of matches.
Amazon Prime Video goes all out for live sport
Alex Green, head of Prime Video Sports in Europe, said that this is the most important club competition in European soccer and remarked that they will continue to inject money into audiovisual rights to provide their audience with a quality experience.
The streaming service managed by Amazon returned to broadcast the Champions League in Italy in 2021. At that time it had also obtained the rights to the tournament in Germany and from the 2024/2025 season it will do so in the United Kingdom.
Sky will also have the audiovisual rights to the Champions League in Italy.
Amazon is planning a project that aims to have a greater presence in the sports sector in several countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany, where it is strongest.
Growth can be achieved by providing new sports content on its Prime Video platform and by reaching more contracts with teams from the four of Europe’s top five leagues to manage their online platforms.
Dazn pays the Italian league almost €850 million to broadcast most of the Serie A matches, seven games out of 10 per matchday.
Sky has acquired the rights to broadcast the remaining matches for around €263 million.
Jeff Bezos‘ company was the first streaming service to make a bet on live sports.
Not only does it have the rights to the Champions League in Germany and the United Kingdom, but it also owns the rights to the NBA and NFL in the United States, the Premier League in England and MLB.
Prime Video’s project is to continue to increase the number of subscribers and the volume of content using the popularity of sports, while streaming services continue to grow at the expense of traditional TV, which has lost a large part of its viewers worldwide since 2015.
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