Amazon is exploring a potential bid for Premier League television rights which could dent Sky Sports and TNT Sports’ dominance in top tier coverage.
With smaller packages of matches unavailable in the current tender process, media rights experts previously predicted Prime Video would walk away.
However, while it’s still very early days in deliberations at Amazon, there is understood to be some interest in at least one of the five packs for the new four-year cycle.
An increase from the current three-year term is proving appealing to emerging challengers like Amazon and DAZN because there is more long-term certainty around production investment.
New competitors might worry TNT more than Sky, which has a stranglehold over the most valuable top tier rights including ‘Super Sunday’ at present.
Amazon and DAZN would be expected to bid for the slighter cheaper of the five new packages, which range in fixture volume from 42 to 65. TNT, formerly BT, currently screens 52 live matches per-season, including 32 Saturday 12.30pm kick-offs. Rights analysts maintain Sky and TNT remain in pole position to retain the lion’s share of matches, however.
The tender process for the new deal officially began on October 18, with 270 of the Premier League’s 380 matches per season being sold, up from 200.
As well as every match on the final day of the season, each game in the five midweek rounds that take place will be made available for live broadcast.
The current established kick-off slots of Saturday 12.30pm and 5.30pm, Sunday 2pm and 4.30pm, and Monday or Friday 8pm are being maintained.
Selling entire rounds of matches on a standalone basis has been abandoned after doing so failed to bring in big money through the smaller deals eventually adopted by Amazon.
The current three-year cycle of broadcast rights was rolled over due to the Covid-19 crisis. The Premier League is sticking with its no-single-buyer rule by preventing any one broadcaster owning more than four of the five packages.
The move to make more matches available, and more per package, followed talks with existing and prospective broadcast partners. It emerged earlier this week that the BBC’s Match of the Day programme will retain the rights to highlights after ITV declined to bid for them.