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Amazon ponders repackaged Premier League deal

Remaining rights packages ‘unattractive’ to potential bidders

Amazon could consider a near-live Premier League streaming deal as it looks to realise its ambitions as a sports broadcaster, according to reports.

Speaking to two prominent executives, Digiday reported that the remaining two rights packages are “unattractive” to the likes of Amazon.

With Sky and BT having already secured  the best five of seven packages, the leftovers are 40 midweek and bank holiday matches, none of which the executives consider “headline” fixtures. Amazon feels it would struggle to add Prime subscribers purely based on those matches alone.

According to the executives, the Premier League was trying to lure a tech giant to drive up its prices, but Amazon sat on the sidelines, and only entered negotiations once it was clear that potential rivals such as Facebook were not going to make a bid.

In a gigantic turning of the tide, the remaining deals have entered something of a buyers’ market, evidenced by the fact that a deal is still yet to be struck.

Repackaging the rights is the easiest way to get Amazon on board, according to the executives. If the league bundled near-live rights to all 380 games with one or both packages of 20 matches each, it would give Amazon a better proposition. According to Ampere Analysis, a combined package of that scale could bring in bids of £360 million.