Blog: sports rights

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The billion-dollar content play: Why Amazon is intentionally overpaying for its NFL rights

Cover image for The billion-dollar content play: Why Amazon is intentionally overpaying for its NFL rights
Tim Mulligan
Last Thursday , the sports ecosystem breathed a collective sigh of relief. The NFL, the world’s most valuable sports league, secured an 11-year broadcast deal worth a staggering $100 billion. This huge sum was secured despite the increasing disengagement of younger demographics with live TV sports viewing; less than 10% of US TV sports audiences are now 16-19 years old (source MIDiA Research Q4 2020 consumer survey).
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Amazon One - Family Christmas Nil

Alistair Taylor
Ever since the English Premier League (EPL) awarded rights to tech major Amazon in June 2018, the excitement for December 2019 and how Amazon’s live stream delivery would pan out has been palpable. The EPL has long prioritised revenue over reach when entertaining rights bids, but this legacy approach is approaching an inflection point; its addressable audience is ageing, increasing the importance of striking a distribution deal with a digital outlet in order to target younger demographics.
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ESPN+ leverages UFC appeal to double subscriber base to 2 million in five months

Alistair Taylor
Disney announced in its Q1 earnings call on Tuesday that its sports-centric streaming service ESPN+ had surpassed two million subscribers, doubling its subscriber base in less than five months. Launched in April 2018 , Disney revealed in September 2018 that it had taken less than five months to surpass one million subscribers .
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