Is Amazon Prime bidding for SL?

[The Daddy]

Seen a tweet on Twitter suggesting that Amazon Prime will be bidding for SL in 2021. Anyone heard owt? 

What impact would it have of the sport and how would it work if true. 

Do Amazon Prime have anywhere near as many subscribers as SKY? 

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Seen a tweet on Twitter suggesting that Amazon Prime will be bidding for SL in 2021. Anyone heard owt? 

What impact would it have of the sport and how would it work if true. 

Do Amazon Prime have anywhere near as many subscribers as SKY? 

A claimed 5.86m subscribers.

[Man of Kent]

Who tweeted about it?

[Damien]

Where did the tweet come from?

[The Daddy]

[The Daddy]

I have no idea if it's true. Worth a discussion though 

[Man of Kent]

Competition would certainly be beneficial for the amount paid for the next deal.

My concern would be if an SL on Amazon doesn’t work out and they don’t renew, would Sky ever come back?

That said, if Amazon offered significantly more money I would bite their hand off.

[Dave T]

I expect this isn't true personally, but it would be great if a provider grabbed hold of the game and did what BT did with RU. The level of promotion and fees they paid them was far above the value based on viewing figures. 

I worry about going further behind pay walls, but I did like the quality of the football they put out the other night. 

[LR23]

Don't want to sound downbeat but why would they bother? They need a flagship sport to pin their mast to not a niche minority sport. They took on tennis first because it is global, moderately popular and cheap enough to use it as a test of their capabilities. Now they are targeting the big boys. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

25 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Seen a tweet on Twitter suggesting that Amazon Prime will be bidding for SL in 2021. Anyone heard owt? 

What impact would it have of the sport and how would it work if true. 

Do Amazon Prime have anywhere near as many subscribers as SKY? 

I'd like this if it meant I no longer subsidise Premiership football/Formula one 

Downside being the sport has a certain exposure to non-fans through Sky Sports... Not as much as terrestrial but certainly targeted at the general casual sports fan

I think I'd quite like it overall. Especially if it means some new ideas and also if it makes SKY less arrogant about the amount they can give us

[Cheshire Setter]

The good thing with Amazon Prime is that if we’re not happy with the quality of our imports they’ll arrange a pick up free of charge and send them back.   Marquee wages guaranteed to be back in your account within 7 days of collection.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, LR23 said:

Don't want to sound downbeat but why would they bother? They need a flagship sport to pin their mast to not a niche minority sport. They took on tennis first because it is global, moderately popular and cheap enough to use it as a test of their capabilities. Now they are targeting the big boys. 

Content filler, and we can offer lots if content at a reasonable price. 

[Tommygilf]

I think the next broadcast deal cannot be exclusive to sky regardless. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 minute ago, Cheshire Setter said:

The good thing with Amazon Prime is that if we’re not happy with the quality of our imports they’ll arrange a pick up free of charge and send them back.   Marquee wages guaranteed to be back in your account within 7 days of collection.

James Maloney... Droned back to the East Coast of Aus

[LR23]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

Content filler, and we can offer lots if content at a reasonable price. 

With Amazon and the likes, they are built around 'on demand' and bitesize entertainment so the need for content filler isn't the same as for the likes of BT and SKY who have dedicated sports channels to fill. I'm sure Amazon would ultimately prefer someone to watch a live game, then watch an episode of Mr Robot before ordering something on Amazon Prime. Not sure where Super League fits into that.

I hope I'm wrong though.

[Damien]

This is one of these RL rumours that will do the rounds and some will then look back on it as being fact in a few months time.

[DoubleD]

Alex Tyrer Graham is generally quite knowledgeable so it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some truth to this. I can certainly see the appeal from Amazon and perhaps they’ll be interested in certain content, Toronto’s matches perhaps. I can’t see them bidding for it all, nor should we probably look to put it all with them but they offer an interesting alternative that might be worth exploring 

[Tommygilf]

Just now, Damien said:

This is one of these RL rumours that will do the rounds and some will then look back on it as being fact in a few months time.

cAnAdIaN pLaYeRs AnD bRoAdCaSt DeAlS? eRiC pErEz 

These sort of "facts" I assume

[whatmichaelsays]

I can't see that SL offers the volume for an Amazon or Netflix - certainly not as a subscription driver. 

For me, the bigger issue of the next Sky deal is how digital rights are handled - we need a more modern agreement that allows SL greater control over digital content. 

[EastLondonMike]

Amazon are in the market for more and more sports content. The onus is always on RL to make itself as attractive to broadcasters as it can, then we'll never be in a situation where we have to worry about broadcasters wanting to show games.

The amazon mindset is if they want to do something, they want to do it better than anyone. I had a job interview with Amazon a few years back, at the time they were looking to break into fashion. The money they were looking to throw at the project was ridiculous. They weren't happy to just be involved, they wanted to rival the likes of Nike immediately and were prepared to throw serious money at it. I guess they realised it wasn't that easy and shelved the project, but they were prepared for serious investment.

I think i'd be more comfortable initially if games were spread across a couple of platforms (SKY and Amazon). I'm a prime subscriber, so would be over the moon if they picked up some RL. 

I always quite liked the idea of a pre-season (but competitive) 9's comp being created, and events such as that used to try and tempt the likes of Amazon and Netflix.

[Chrispmartha]

23 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I think the next broadcast deal cannot be exclusive to sky regardless. 

This, I think we should be looking at a couple of broadcast partners, along with the BBC of course, but Sky may not be up for that.

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

cAnAdIaN pLaYeRs AnD bRoAdCaSt DeAlS? eRiC pErEz 

These sort of "facts" I assume

Exactly 

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Alex Tyrer Graham is generally quite knowledgeable so it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some truth to this. I can certainly see the appeal from Amazon and perhaps they’ll be interested in certain content, Toronto’s matches perhaps. I can’t see them bidding for it all, nor should we probably look to put it all with them but they offer an interesting alternative that might be worth exploring 

I definitely think that with the breadth of SL now we can comfortably schedule any game to not clash with any other. Thursday Night, Friday Night, Saturday 3pm (UK), 5pm (Catalans), 7/9pm (Toronto) and Sunday (or perhaps 2 on Sunday). These can be and indeed should be split up between broadcasters.

[DoubleD]

3 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I definitely think that with the breadth of SL now we can comfortably schedule any game to not clash with any other. Thursday Night, Friday Night, Saturday 3pm (UK), 5pm (Catalans), 7/9pm (Toronto) and Sunday (or perhaps 2 on Sunday). These can be and indeed should be split up between broadcasters.

I agree, it would help moving to 14 teams too

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

This, I think we should be looking at a couple of broadcast partners, along with the BBC of course, but Sky may not be up for that.

If Sky are only broadcasting 2 (at best 3) games a week anyway at their own expense then they shouldn't be given that much control. I wouldn't mind an arrangement where sky get the first pick of games but they certainly shouldn't have exclusivity going forwards.