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Amazon’s Wide World of Sports

Amazon may have entered the entertainment business to sell more toilet paper and toothpaste, but it definitely sees local sports as a way to serve ads and hawk merch.

In the last few years, Amazon not only acquired the rights to Thursday Night Football, it also made major sports rights acquisitions in almost a dozen other countries, including the U.K., Brazil, and Australia.
In the last few years, Amazon not only acquired the rights to Thursday Night Football, it also made major sports rights acquisitions in almost a dozen other countries, including the U.K., Brazil, and Australia. Photo: Mandel Ngan/Getty Images
Julia Alexander
January 3, 2024

We’ve long ago discarded the notion that live sports has no place in streaming. Apple gobbled up all MLS and limited MLB rights. Peacock and Paramount+ rely on their linear NFL deals to prop up their streamers. Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to turn Max into a live sports hub using its Bleacher Report shingle. Google’s YouTube TV acquired NFL Sunday Ticket rights. And, of course, Bob Iger and Jimmy Pitaro are on the long, slow, uncertain journey to launch ESPN as its own OTT service, whenever that happens. Netflix, for its part, says it’s content to merely broadcast live sports–adjacent series like Full Swing and F1: Drive to Survive, but let’s see how long that remains the case.