They should offer a team pass for big teams that allow you to watch all your team's games except 3pm games. With United you'd still be able to watch 80% of the games.
Hopefully the 3pm blackout ends soon too
Amazon to bid for Premier League rights
- Thread starter Jacko21
- Start date
Hopefully the 3pm blackout ends soon too
I agree Prime is amazing, but it'll probably go up to £99.99 a year, which is still amazing considering all the benefits. That or they'll create Amazon-Sport which will suck but still unlikely to be more than £20.
Possible in the NBA too, you can buy one team much cheaper.
What a wonderland
Shortly after, "Prime-Sports Plus" for the high profile matches.
That's the thing that puts me off buying Sky/Bt, knowing I'll have to fork out quite a bit and still miss half the fecking United games.
Ah, excellent.
Thats interesting. It may kill the smaller clubs though - then again this may force all teams to put a ticket price cap on all games which will bring in more punters.
Isn't this effectively what BT did at the start, you paid for the broad band, got a pretty good quality set top box with an excellent planner and BT sport for free. Was always deals you got the lot for (relatively) nothingA third big player in the bidding will only push the price of the rights up, which in turn will be passed on to the customers. So we can look forward to having to shell out even more. There's more live matches in this latest deal too so prices will definitely inflate.
Worst case scenario is Sky, BT and Amazon all win one or more packages. Hello three separate subscriptions!
I'd be very surprised (and happy) if Amazon offer the football as part of the current Prime deal. These rights cost billions so they have to get the money back somehow. Although a company of that size and profit could absorb it in the short term in order to attract more customers.
I went to BT after the GF wouldn't go in with my on the cost of sky (even with massive discount) but then the price shot up (twice I think) recently and we ended up leaving that too and went with Virgin for better BB speed
I imagine the same thing will happen with Amazon, free/nominal cost (maybe PPV like some box sets/tv they have) then after a year or so turn the screw
Some people like being able to get a bit of something for less, multiple companies owning various packages suits them. But if I'm paying anything to watch my team, I want to be getting all of what's on offer, so I need access to all of these. I wonder how many are in each ship....
Saw a report a couple of months ago they're not even close to the size of Walmart. I was surprised at that stat I saw but I honestly can not remember the numbers. Google should know.
If it was delivered via Prime with a quality team of presenters, I say it's good for the sport. Does Amazon have a shirt sponsor?
My Amazon prime still thinks i'm a student, so I for one welcome our new Sporting Broadcast overlords.
I can understand why the 3pm blackout is kind of archaic from a business POV - compared to many sports it's sort of absurd that you'll often be unable to watch games being played by some of the England's biggest clubs without having to find a stream online...from a business POV it's patently bonkers.
But I do think there's an argument for it all the same, and that there's a danger if it's taken away. Obviously a lot of clubs don't play at 3pm on a Saturday anyway but it's still a somewhat regular thing. And while plenty of football fans will no doubt work flexible schedules and are no more available on a Saturday than they would be on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon, the regularity probably does help a lot of fans, and builds a culture for fans who travel to away games etc and can adhere to a somewhat constant schedule that's altered occasionally.
It won't hit the big clubs, because they're always going to have enough fans anyway, but for fans of smaller clubs I can see there being a bit of frustration in match-times constantly fluctuating as opposed to being semi-fixed in some way.
But I do think there's an argument for it all the same, and that there's a danger if it's taken away. Obviously a lot of clubs don't play at 3pm on a Saturday anyway but it's still a somewhat regular thing. And while plenty of football fans will no doubt work flexible schedules and are no more available on a Saturday than they would be on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon, the regularity probably does help a lot of fans, and builds a culture for fans who travel to away games etc and can adhere to a somewhat constant schedule that's altered occasionally.
It won't hit the big clubs, because they're always going to have enough fans anyway, but for fans of smaller clubs I can see there being a bit of frustration in match-times constantly fluctuating as opposed to being semi-fixed in some way.
When I can pay a cheap price to watch all United games, all cup QF/SF and Finals and any other 'big' games, in UHD, then I'll pay a real company for it. Until then, they can all feck off and i'll stream it
The 3pm kick-offs will in all likelihood remain in place. I'd imagine the Premier League would create separate packages for 3pm games that they would then auction to broadcasters. It's the blackout itself that will disappear, not the timeslot - because whilst Sky and BT are guilty of scheduling some games that don't take into account attending fans, there is very little chance that the Premier League would leave the arranging of all league games in the hands of broadcasters. It would present too greater risk to all concerned.
I think the best route to go would be allowing Amazon to simply stream all of the 3pm Saturday kick-offs... Or in an ideal world, all non-televised games. People just find illegal streams all the time anyway, so an option where the Premier League makes money from streaming seems like a win/win. It might even somewhat balance out the feared lower attendances in terms of revenue (not that I think attendance would suffer that much, and if it does then cheaper ticket prices benefit the consumer yet again).
The downside is if you want everything, you have to subscribe to multiple things and end up paying more, but if everything was restricted to one provider you'd probably end up paying even more for the service then the combined fee for multiple to be honest. Think Microsoft Windows back in the day.
The downside is if you want everything, you have to subscribe to multiple things and end up paying more, but if everything was restricted to one provider you'd probably end up paying even more for the service then the combined fee for multiple to be honest. Think Microsoft Windows back in the day.
Unlike shitty Sky, Prime is actually reasonably priced. So bring it on.
Good news, the end of the Sky stranglehold. For those worrying about paying more to yet another company, part of Amazon's business model is to buy markets. They'll just keep outbidding Sky/BT until they give up and exit the market leaving Amazon as the sole provider.
I think most feel this way.
The death of the 3pm blackout might well be the streaming sites. I imagine the PL will be thinking that they can't truly stop it now and will decide to cash in sooner or later.
Amazon are believed to have struck a partnership with Swedish company Net Insight, provider of a live streaming service (give or take very few seconds compared to upwards of two minutes today), which is why Amazon's potential investment in the PL is of particular interest to me that just bought stock in Net Insight.
https://netinsight.net/product/sye/
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Are they any good? I mainly watch NBCSN, Fox Sports and ESPN.You can still do the same , right ? I am with fubo for almost 1 year now. No crazy cable bills
I doubt they'll give it away with standard Prime - probably will need a premium subscription to get the PL
This has to be a concern.
One of those areas where competition could be viewed as bad thing for the consumer.
feck sky or the fa or whoever decides that those of us outside of England can't watch games because they want to make people in England go to games.
The 3pm blackout is in place primarily to protect the lower leagues no?
If there’s a tasty PL game on TV at 3pm people may decide to stay home and watch that than go see their local team on a freezing afternoon in December.
England is quite unique in Europe with the number of professional clubs / divisions as far as I know? That’s something worth protecting.
However, in this day and age it needs to be tested to see if attendances would actually drop. A single season trial perhaps.
Also, having a club TV season ticket would be great for fans but disasterous for the conpetitiveness of the PL. The big clubs with large fan bases would get immeasurably richer and the smaller ones a lot poorer. The PL would turn into La Liga with 2/3 teams dominating forever.
The sharing of the TV revenue among all clubs is one of the best things about the PL imo. Although did I read some of the bigger clubs have contested this but the rest of the PL clubs outvoted them?
If there’s a tasty PL game on TV at 3pm people may decide to stay home and watch that than go see their local team on a freezing afternoon in December.
England is quite unique in Europe with the number of professional clubs / divisions as far as I know? That’s something worth protecting.
However, in this day and age it needs to be tested to see if attendances would actually drop. A single season trial perhaps.
Also, having a club TV season ticket would be great for fans but disasterous for the conpetitiveness of the PL. The big clubs with large fan bases would get immeasurably richer and the smaller ones a lot poorer. The PL would turn into La Liga with 2/3 teams dominating forever.
The sharing of the TV revenue among all clubs is one of the best things about the PL imo. Although did I read some of the bigger clubs have contested this but the rest of the PL clubs outvoted them?
happy days i have prime
ronaldo7 my friend, ronaldo7 is the answer. You can watch almost every game. (I do not encourage people to watch illegal streams. On a second thought though, everything that's free is better, as long as it doesn't come with a ring on your finger)
Yep easily good enough. Look into it but 35$ gets you NBCSN, fox sports and Bein. Would be 15$ more to get ESPN. This is on sling.
@Niall
The problem I have with protecting the lower clubs argument is the poor selection of 3pm games.
All big games are cherry picked for prime time so I can't see what the threat would be unless rival fans would have stayed in for Liverpool v Leicester last week?
The problem I have with protecting the lower clubs argument is the poor selection of 3pm games.
All big games are cherry picked for prime time so I can't see what the threat would be unless rival fans would have stayed in for Liverpool v Leicester last week?
You only have to look at lower league's attendances when they play the same night as champions league games.
It might not affect the "hard core", but the hard cores are small at a lot of the lower league teams. It's those floating spectators
I don't think we're a million miles off this second highlighted point as we are now?
Takes out the outliers of Leicester and Blackburn over the last 20 years, and the league has only been won by 4 teams, with 12 of the last 13 years won by one of the 3 richest.
Yes good point.
In NFL in the US don’t they blackout certain matches in certain areas so it doesn’t affect attendance?
Not sure if something like that would work in the UK. Much smaller country allowing people to travel to games from all over.
Let's see how long that lasts..
And I say that as a Prime user. If they add live matches they won't be doing it without wanting to make money on it.
The issue Amazon have with Prime is they see a massive amount of churn after the Christmas period, where consumers just use it for the free next day delivery and then drop it.
Getting some Premier League rights might encourage people to stay subscribed year round...
Getting some Premier League rights might encourage people to stay subscribed year round...
The more companies with TV rights the worse it will be for us the customers, we’ll end up paying for multiple subscriptions. Amazon are great but they won’t keep their current price for the sports it will be a extra package on top of the standard charge whilst BT and Sky won’t drop their prices so we pick up the bill.
The internet is the bigger monopolization machine in human history and nobody cares. I think we will fall flat on our faces on day with this.
It needs trying. The original reason for the blackout was based on a hunch and that was 50 years ago.
There was a study done a few years ago I think, in which they concluded there was no evidence to suggest that attendances would drop.
Technically unless you're in the ground nothing else is truly live. Satellite has a small delay and any decent streaming service is about 10-20 seconds behind the live feed you would get through Aerial or Dish.
I don't like this.
Unless you have your phone with BT, BT Sport as been shite for the paying customer in the UK, them getting some key Premier League games along with them buying up all ITV's Champions League rights along with Sky's (so can't watch Champions League anymore) and them taking UFC off Bravo.
Can't see them getting it though, Premier League is a big part of Sky's business, they won't lose that and will bid whatever it takes, all what will happen is an even bigger bidding war making Premier League clubs even richer.
Unless you have your phone with BT, BT Sport as been shite for the paying customer in the UK, them getting some key Premier League games along with them buying up all ITV's Champions League rights along with Sky's (so can't watch Champions League anymore) and them taking UFC off Bravo.
Can't see them getting it though, Premier League is a big part of Sky's business, they won't lose that and will bid whatever it takes, all what will happen is an even bigger bidding war making Premier League clubs even richer.
It won't be though if they win Premier League rights.
Can easily see Amazon picking up a package and taking a hit the first season or so. Inclusive with Prime to see how it goes.
Not like they are short on cash to speculate with.
They wont need to use it as a cash cow either like Sky do. Sky sell at a massive markup, Amazon could do it at closer to cost and take the additional subscribers using other Prime features as a major benefit.
Not like they are short on cash to speculate with.
They wont need to use it as a cash cow either like Sky do. Sky sell at a massive markup, Amazon could do it at closer to cost and take the additional subscribers using other Prime features as a major benefit.
Like many I'm already a happy prime member and personally I think this is great news. Far more customer driven company than Sky or *shudder BT. Long live our Amazonian overlords.
Well they must invest the taxes they save by not paying any somewhere, might as well broaden their portfolio.