History will be made tonight when Amazon Prime becomes the latest broadcaster to show live Premier League football.
In what will be a first for the league, the streaming service is making all ten midweek fixtures available to view through their platform over a three-day period, with kick off times varying from 7.30pm to 8.15pm.
Crystal Palace v Bournemouth will kick off proceedings this evening, before Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham visit Old Trafford and the Merseyside Derby take centre stage tomorrow night. Amazon Prime will also be showing all ten Premier League fixtures on Boxing Day and December 27th.
This round of fixtures will be the first time the Premier League hasn’t been broadcast live on either Sky Sports or BT Sport since 2013. The model is seen, in many quarters, as a trial run for streaming to become a regular fixture in English football, ahead of when the next round of bidding for Premier League football becomes available in 2022.
The fixtures will also mark the first time live Premier League football will be broadcast for free in the UK. Amazon is offering non-Prime members a free 30-day trial which will include all 20 live fixtures. The online giant hopes that the trial will entice customers into paying it’s £79-per-year Prime membership, which also includes free delivery and music streaming.
Amazon will certainly hope their gamble to offer free Premier League football doesn’t turn into an expensive one; it’s alleged that the company has paid nearly £300m to show 20 matches per season, over the next three years. Sky still lead the way with Premier League coverage, however, after spending £3.75bn to show 128 games a season over three years. BT Sport, meanwhile, has paid £975m to show 52 games a season, across the same period.
If the Amazon trial works, fans should expect to see the likes of Netflix and Facebook sniffing around when bidding re-opens in three years’ time. These services, along with Sky and BT, should approach with caution, however; football fans are loyal, but are they prepared to pay two, three, maybe even four different subscriptions to watch live games? The cost of subscribing to Sky, BT and Amazon this season is around £70-per-month. How far can fans stretch to watch their team?
Whatever the future holds for live football in the UK, it’s certainly come a long way since Sky and the Premier League took over the reins in 1992.
