Amazon pays more than Twitter for NFL streaming

[WMGroomAK]

In a story similar to one reported on the March 10th WAN Show doc, Amazon has outbid Twitter for the rights to stream 10 of this year's US National Football League Thursday Night games.  Total price paid for this by Amazon will be $50 million dollars or 5 times the $10 million that Twitter paid for the same rights last year.  As to who can watch these games, according to the Ars Technica Article:

https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/04/amazon-outbids-twitter-for-rights-to-livestream-thursday-night-football-games/

 

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Amazon's deal also differs from Twitter's because only Amazon Prime members can stream these games. Last year, games shown on Twitter could be viewed by any logged-on Twitter user. This appears to be the first of many deals Amazon could reach to stream live sports to Prime members, something the company has alluded to since the end of last year. The rumor was that Amazon wasn't sure if live sports would come at an additional charge to Prime members or if they would stand alone in their own, separately priced package. The upcoming season's Thursday Night Football games are wrapped into a regular Prime membership, which costs $99 annually.

In addition to this, the article reports:

 

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Amazon has also reportedly been in talks with Major League Baseball and the NBA to livestream games and events from those organizations, but nothing definitive has come from those talks yet. Netflix is one of the only big streaming players that hasn't been gunning for sports content, and company executives have stated in the past that Netflix won't be bidding for sports rights any time soon.

 

So, if you are an American Football fan and don't have an Amazon Prime account yet, this might be a way for Amazon to finally get you.  Or it could turn you off to some of those games I guess.   Anyway, it is interesting to watch as the major cable companies are losing their power to the streaming services and major sports such as MLS, MLB, NBA & NFL games are probably going to be the thing that finally either forces cable companies to change their model or go extinct.

[Teddy07]

I assume that is only for amazon.com users?

[The Benjamins]

I can see them also having games streamed on twitch, not just amazon.com. They could make it a exclusive to twitch Prime (amazon prime) and twitch turbo users.

 

Just think about twitch chat :^)