- Amazon has exclusive rights to NFL’s Thursday Night Football
- Tech firm is paying US$100m for Black Friday game
- NBA looking to create streaming package to drive revenue
Amazon is interested in acquiring the US domestic rights to the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs.
The tech giant has been widely linked with a move for the world’s premier basketball competition to complement its well-received exclusive coverage of the National Football League’s (NFL) Thursday Night Football (TNF).
Jay Marine, Amazon’s global head of sports, told the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast that the NBA’s global appeal and youthful fanbase made it an ideal candidate for its portfolio. However, he acknowledged that there were differences between the NFL, in which teams play 17 regular season games a year, and the NBA in which sides play 82 fixtures.
This means that while each NFL game carried some significance and national interest, many NBA matches are more valuable to fans of individual teams and players. Given Amazon’s strategy is focused on acquiring rights that add value to Prime subscriptions rather than comprehensive coverage, Marine suggested that the playoffs would be of great interest to the company.
“We don’t need to have everything, we can be selective,” said Marine, noting that in several European territories it has the rights to a single Uefa Champions League fixture each matchday, with other broadcasters having the rights to the remaining inventory. “But we want things to be meaningful and big enough, so we go for the largest tier one properties out there.
“[The NBA] is one of the biggest leagues in the world and people care about it. At the end of the day, do Prime members care about it? Is it important to their life? And, as a result, can it be meaningful in terms of the value it adds to Prime members and the Prime programme? And I think with the NBA, it is true on all of those fronts.
“The [NBA] is different because of the game volume. For us, would playoffs be an important part of [any bid]? Yes, that’s fair to say.”
Amazon is preparing for a significant milestone in its short sports broadcasting history – the first ever live broadcast of an NFL game on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It is paying US$100 million a year for the privilege, hoping to drive retail sales on the busiest shopping day of the year in the US. With that in mind, the game is free to anyone with an Amazon account – not just Prime subscribers – in a bid to attract even non-sports fans looking for something to watch on their day off.
Amazon hopes to lure as many viewers into its retail ecosystem and will use the Black Friday game as a showcase for its coverage and broadcast innovations. Meanwhile, QR codes will appear on the screen to provide easy access to deals.
“We’re super excited to create a new NFL holiday and Black Friday is hugely important to Amazon for many reasons,” said Marine. “We’re going to have a lot of fun with it. We’re going to drop exclusive deals for our viewers throughout the game … but we’re not going to get in the way of the football.”