Amazon significantly increases Premier League’s domestic exposure

Amazon’s ownership of some Premier League rights has increased the competition’s reach by a third.

According to figures from Ampere analysis, Amazon – which reportedly paid £90 million for 20 live matches per season through to 2022 – has extended the reach of live coverage to nearly three-quarters of domestic fans. 

According to the study, Amazon’s distribution means that 72% of fans now have access to at least some matches, compared to 54% which have either of both a BT Sport or Sky Sports subscription.

The remainder of live football watching fans watch in bars or pubs, with that figure standing at 8% including Amazon, or 15% excluding Amazon.

Though it holds the rights to 20 games per season, those matches are spread across two match days at the beginning and end of December. The first of which took place on the 3-5 December, with Amazon saying the matches drew record sign-ups.

Alex Green, Amazon Prime Video’s managing director of sport in Europe, said: “We’re delighted that millions of football fans enjoyed watching Amazon’s first ever round of Premier League matches on Prime Video.

“We are excited to be the first ever broadcaster to bring fans all 10 games live in a fixture round. We are thrilled and humbled by the positive response from Prime members.”

Jonathan Broughton, lead analyst at research firm Media Business Insight said: “Amazon’s broadcast of its first Premier League games has clearly gone really well, both technically streaming and also in the huge response of new sign-ups, albeit at the moment they are free trialists. If the broadcast of the next round of matches over Christmas goes as well I can see the potential for Amazon to have increased involvement in more sports rights, including bidding for more Premier League games at the next auction.”

Overall, the broadcast was well received, but criticism from many still remains that fragmentation of rights across three buyers means fans are having to pay more.

A key issue for many viewers was also latency. Amazon’s broadcast was reportedly up to a minute behind the live action in stadiums around the country, with app notifications often being ahead of the broadcast in terms of revealing key events. 

Amazon also recently signed a deal with Dutch telco KPN that will see Prime Video added to KPN Interactieve TV.