As Amazon looks to broaden their offering of live sports content, the tech giant says they’re satisfied with their first season carrying NFL games.
“We’re just in the early stages here. We were definitely pleased with the way things played out,” said Jim DeLorenzo, the head of Amazon Sports. “It was great to partner with the NFL on this and we were really happy with how our customers reacted to it. But it’s too soon to say this impacts our strategy going forward.”
Amazon, paid $50 million to the NFL for the right to live stream 11 games, a large increase from the $10 million paid by Twitter for the same rights one year prior. Amazon built on Twitter’s audience, averaging 310,000 viewers per minute, a 17 percent jump from consumers watching on Twitter last season.
CBS and NBC which split the Thursday Night Football package, paid $45 million per game compared to the $50 million spent by Amazon for 11 games. The networks, however, averaged an audience size of more than 10 million. Next season’s Thursday Night Football broadcast package is up for grabs, with candidates submitting bids this month. According to a Sports Business Daily report last month, the NFL isn’t opposed to changes regarding how TNF is delivered to consumers.
In addition to the NFL, Amazon has also streamed tennis matches, college basketball and according to a recent Bloomberg report, they’re preparing a bid for the Premier League. DeLorenzo would not say how aggressive the company plans to get in terms of future spending on live sports content.
“This was really our first step into distributing live sporting events at scale on a global basis,” DeLorenzo said. “Of course there was learning. Because we’re so early on in that process of distributing this kind of content to our customers, there are a number of things we can look at along the way.”
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
