US online retail giants Amazon has announced that it has purchased one of the two remaining packages of Premier League games available for three seasons from August 2019.
Sky Sports and BT Sport – as outlined here – purchased 160 of the 200 available games in the initial round of bidding. Until recently, two packages remained unsold. However, BT Sport has now added another 20 matches per season to its scheduling for £90 million, with Amazon buying the other.
Amazon will exclusively live stream all 10 matches over one bank holiday of Premier League games and another 10 during a midweek fixture programme, for three seasons from 2019.
Amazon has long since moved into the world of online entertainment with its Prime membership streaming video and music to customers, as well as giving them expedited shipping for products they purchase via the website. Last year they outbid Sky for the UK rights to show the ATP World Tour tennis and to live audio-stream Bundesliga football commentaries in Germany.
Adding Premier League football to the package is an obvious transition, especially at a time when people’s consumption of the sport is now far from traditional. The television is just one of the ways people watch the beautiful game, with computers, tablets and mobile devices all part of the experience these days.
What will it mean for consumers though? Effectively, it means that if you don’t have an Amazon Prime subscription, you’ll have to take one up, adding another monthly cost on top of what you already pay for Sky and BT.
Prime costs £79 a year in the UK or a monthly subscription of £7.99.
IRELAND
In Ireland, the League has concluded the sale of 233 live matches per season split into eight packages of rights, the same seven packages of rights as in the UK and an additional package of 33 Saturday 15:00 matches.
Sky Sports has acquired four packages, totalling 128 matches per season, BT Sport two packages, totalling 52 matches per season, and Premier Sports two packages, totalling 53 matches per season.
That may mean an additional subscription to Premier Sports, although the company is expected to hold talks with Sky, Virgin Media, Eir and other platforms about offering these games to customers in Ireland.
It’s still cheaper than going to a single live match.
Is it? A game is around £40. All this is just driving people to illegal streams even more. How they can expect the average customer to stump up 3 figure amounts for 3 separate services every month is beyond me. Throw in some insightful comments by the likes of Jamie Rednapp and co. and you’re looking at the biggest con in media history. I’ve never paid for subscription sports and I for sure don’t intend to. Complete waste of my time and hard-earned cash.
It’s a good commercial decision for Amazon. They get more people paying for Amazon Prime and hence get more people using Amazon for shopping with free delivery. And more chance for Amazon to advertise to them and push their cheaper prices.
House of Fraser is closing lots of stores, M and S too and this is going to make things worse for the high street shops. More will go bust and Amazon will boom.
Only shame apart from if you are working on the high street and will lose your job is that Amazon avoid tax.
Just sign up for the month that the games are on and cancel it after. Shit I joined Bet365 and placed a $10 bet on to watch one of Arsenal’s early carabao matches a couple years back. The one where Xhaka scored from long range. If you want to watch it live then you’ll find a way
Another nail in the coffin of my football watching experience.
Just let me watch all of the team matches for the team I support for crying out loud.
like they do in italy… where it has killed attendances.
This!
The premier league will end up strangling itself, stuck with players who no one else can afford to take off their books, and an audience who’s fed up of being squeezed.
I have Prime because the wife continually buys shit…….so its a small win for me
As Brit living in US it’s so apparent how UK based supporters are getting screwed with the most expensive subscriptions but with fewer live games to watch. $25 a month for Sling with most games I want to watch Vs £80ish for Sky + Sky Sports + BT Sport for fewer games. The bubble will burst for these companies soon.
I’m curious as to the cost of what we have to pay for Premier League footy on TV (extortionate) is compared to what it costs to watch live American sports in the US (NFL or NBA).
The ‘big four’ (basketball, Am. football, baseball, and hockey) are usually on over-the-air networks a majority of the time and are usually baked into the cost of a decent cable package.
Most basic cable packages in US carry ESPN, TNT, TBS, and basic networks CBS NBC, and Fox. That covers major weekly sporting events NFL and NBA. For streamers. I think YouTube TV package is the best in NYC. For 40 dollars a month, you get all the channels you would need for weekly national NBA and NFL games, plus NBC Sports that covers Premier League Games, plus FS channels for Champions League games. It comes with SNY and YES channels that provides you access to local MLB games. 40 covers DVR as well. When my Verizon FIOs contract runs out,… Read more »
Spare a thought for us Aussies. Optus only provides PL packages to people who sign up for their phone services first.
For next season, you will be able to subscribe for $30 to get non optus access. $30 for all games on the one platform, bargain.
Until this past season prism provided all EPL games for a nominal add one. All champions leagues games were part of the basic package. Oddly the most expensive games to watch live were the league cup. I didn’t pay for that.
This past season some games started showing up as Part of a different subscription. I think that trend will continue and viewing costs will increase.
Totally. Frankly as a Brit living in India I recommend you all come here. TV is very cheap.
But it’s India……
Given the structure of the package (all 20 games compacted into two fixture rounds, majority of which will probably be simultaneous), it be interesting to see how Amazon price it. I suspect it might be a cheaper price point pay-per-view structure for each game than just having it as part of the Prime package. If it does just end up part of the normal Prime service, you can just subscribe for the month when those games are on and cancel (like you can with Sky Sports on NowTV) – something you can’t really do with BT Sport or traditional Sky,… Read more »
This is definitely a proof of concept exercise, it’ll be very interesting to see what the up take and the price point for each game is
Yeah, I suspect Amazon getting the package (over the likes of Netflix or DAZN) might have more to do with their ability to sell a individual (digital) products to the widest audience, than as a content provider.
Really hope it’s not a backdoor way to start having the ‘big games’ becoming PPV events in traditional (overpriced)model Sky Box Office been rinsing for boxing over the last couple decades.
It’s amazing how corporations find ways around concepts taught as “laws” of economics.
Almost like they’re begging to be regulated. Don’t even think new laws are needed, just reinstate that Ofcom investigation into the Premier League and watch them dance.
As it was Ofcom who forced the splitting up in the name of “competition” against the Sky “monopoly”, I can’t see that going anywhere.
Now I’d have thought that “competition” would mean being able to buy the same service from a choice of providers, but what the fuck do I know…
Well, I’ll be streaming the games next season but it won’t be on Amazon…
All the Amazon games will be in December, so you can just get a free trial for that month, cancel before the end, and watch those games for free!
Here’s the thing…. these companies (and the EPL) try to market this as more choice for the consumer, but it really isn’t. It’s just more cost. If you want to watch a specific team (which I guess 90%+ of “consumers” (i.e. fans) do) then you just end up paying for more subscriptions. I’d love to be able to choose between one provider and another for each Arsenal game, but clearly that’s not how they market their product.
I’ve got Sky and BT Sport and I won’t pay any more.
Why can’t these games go to a terrestrial broadcaster? The PL are missing a trick here: live PL games on the BBC or ITV would help to advertise the product and probably pay better. At least one of these packages should be free-to air. Instead fans are being screwed and asked to pay more.
I just hope that none of the really big matches are on Amazon.
Good points on BBC and ITV, that would entice more people in.
On Amazon Prime there might be two Arsenal matches in 20 matches on the law of averages.
I have BT Sport and Amazon Prime but not Sky and am not going to pay extra for it.
I’d rather follow the key highlights of matches via the excellent http://www.arsenalist.com or Terje than pay a fortune to see every minute (including all the boring ones) live.
I don’t think anyone gets screwed anywhere near as hard on live sports as the UK. The Premier League is the most watched in the world yet we don’t get access to 3pm games for archaic “grass roots football” reasons, we have to pay for multiple subscriptions to watch some, not all, games and even if you want to go to a live game it costs an arm and a leg. The US has done it right with basketball – a league pass for your favourite team for the whole year costs just $119. That’s a lot more games, lot… Read more »
I’m just glad my TV seems to pick up all these channels ever since I inserted a wire from my magic box into the TV. And all for a months subscription to sky.
In Canada, DAZN (some online sports version of Netflix) just bought all CL and Europa games for the next 3 years. Problem is EPL games are still on regular TV. So basically, the extra $40 I already spend on 2 soccer channels will only get me EPL games and no CL or Europa…
So greedy. Time to cable cut and illegally stream them all, sort of left me no choice…
Soccer?
On the other side of the pond football is that game you play with your hands
don’t be that guy, you know what I mean. I’m Irish-Canadian so in Ireland football is Gaelic football and in Canada football is the CFL (Canadian Football League)…
If there’s any perks for living outside England, it’s everything is only come with one package. One package to rule them broadcasters all.
Just find a friend/ family member who has prime membership guys. Normally a lady who does a lot of online shopping for the free prime shipping service.
I use someones, and it doesn’t matter to them as they trust me, and it doesn’t limit IP addresses/ computers that sign in like netflix does, you entire family/ social circle can use one membership as long as there’s trust there to give amazon login details and not buy anything etc as card details are stored.
Amazon and bezos will be the death of us all.
Yet another reason to use the hd free streaming bootlegging services
Count that as my protest against football capitalism
I like this, stopped BT and Sky due to terrible programming/ principles/ truly extortionate pricing, but Amazon Prime is far more accessible and the fact it’s a temporary format make much more sense. I get the gripe if you can’t help yourself but subscribe to every option, but that admission should also preclude your from complaining, if you’re honest. This is exactly why competition is needed so the fundamental product is improved for the sake of the consumer long-term.
I personally think this could be a good thing in the long run, if Amazon see something they like they could push for more, and let’s face it £80 a year is a lot cheaper than £80 a month which is what Sky Sports costs.
I even heard they could push to buy Sky Sports and add it to their streaming service. Even if they charge a separate fee, it would still be cheaper than Sky Sports extortionate subscription rate.
Excellent! Don’t have Sky/BT but very into Amazon so this is good news for me. The ideal would still be if every game (including 3pm ones) were viewable on a single platform that allowed streaming but sadly I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon. As it is when I do watch Arsenal games at home which are on Sky I tend to get a day pass and stream it on my TV. I’ve always found it quite annoying that BT continues to refuse to offer a similar pay-per-view service for people who only want to watch a handful of games on… Read more »
You guys actually pay to watch football?
Haha, what he said. 100mbp connection and I’ve barely missed an Arsenal game in the last 3yrs….
Hi Sky. Hi Virgin. Hi BT Sport. And now Hi Amazon. You can all fukk off now.
You telling me you don’t pay Reddit?
Agree. Cut the cable and I get to watch every Arsenal game
Is Prime a 12 month subscription only? Otherwise with it just having two weekends of matches, you’ll only have to pay for two months subscription.
Yes, just checked and it’s £7.99 for a month subscription. So that’s £7.99 to watch a football game, stream tv for a month, and have loads of tat delivered to your door the next day. Sounds like quite a good deal to me.
Also, first month subscription is free 😉
Happy with this… I have prime already which gives me:
– Next day delivery
– Amazon Music
– Amazon Prime TV
– Free Kindle Books
– Twitch Prime (which comes with free PC games every month, and good ones too)
And now premier league games! Can’t go wrong really for the price.
I wonder why people use streams?
Remember the days when if you weren’t there you missed the match? Remember the days when if the match wasn’t covered by Sky (and you weren’t there) you missed the match? … Remember last season when often no-one covered the Arsenal match and you had to wait until it became available in full on the Arsenal Player? All we have here is something that we’ve not yet seen in practice. If Amazon are going to be predominately covering (Arsenal) matches that wouldn’t otherwise get an airing then fine. But I only care about us. I couldn’t give a fuck about… Read more »
Players like Ozil on over £300k per week and they still want more from us. Either sell us an Arsenal pass for all games, or it is too complicated and expensive to pick all avenues.
So much easier in Australia. Admittedly its a smaller market but we have the joy of Free to Air and pay for your EPL. The ‘football’ channel on free to air is SBS and has 1 EPL game live each week (often involves one of the big boys!) and then you can stream through Optus (from as little as $15 a month) for live coverage of every other game and on demand afterwards. We trually are the lucky country 🙂 Just means it costs us thousands to fly to UK to watch a game live and watching EPL from 11pm… Read more »