«The Sky is the Limit», a popular proverb says. This must be the same view that Jeff Bezos and the other managers of Amazon have developed in these years, considering the growth of business and interests followed by their corporation.
We know Amazon for its endless offer of products available online, more and more attractive for the customers but also for its impact on the traditional network of commerce.
Since 2016, however, the American company has launched in Italy its video-on-demand service. Amazon Prime Video started its offer not only to consolidate the relationship with the old and new clients, but also to launch an ambitious challenge to Netflix, the unquestioned leader in the OTT offer.
Premieres, movies, classics, documentaries, TV series is a wide choice for subscribers, who could see even original production for the Italian market as the musical doc Ferro about the pop singer
Simultaneously, Amazon Prime Video decided to enlarge its field of action in the last months: on the one hand, the birth of various channels specialized in cinema and music; on the other side, the start of a complex challenge in the football T.V.-rights market.
A way that Amazon’s management has already followed in England, where Premier League sold an exclusive package of 20 matches, broadcasted only on Prime Video, for £90 million (€105 million) in June 2019. Despite the streaming problems, football fans have appreciated the whole proposal, especially for the updated stats on the right side of the screen and the high quality of TV commentators and second voices as the Liverpool’s former manager Harry Redknapp and Alan Shearer, one of the most prolific scorers in the English football history.
This was the principal stage of a plan that concerns the entire world of sports: in fact, Prime Video proposed for the UK customers both US Open, a Grand Slam tournament, and the NFL Thursday Night Football, with a total of 12 matches by season.
The success gained in the United Kingdom persuades Amazon to add another target on his business plan: the Italian market. As you certainly know, our audience became familiar with the OTT platforms only in the last five years. However, most of the audience still comes from DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) and, in smaller measure, from pay-tv.
Nonetheless, it had been a significant surprise when Amazon announced the purchase of 16 Champions League matches for the period 2021-2024, defeating a huge competitor as DAZN.
This movement could upset not only a static market such as ours, heavily conditioned by the long domination of Sky: Amazon could give a remarkable help to the football teams, really penalized by the Coronavirus consequences.
In a few words, the American corporation wants to promote a new kind of commercial strategy at the service of football: first of all, a larger offer for the viewers, that can also access to the other Amazon facilities, and many opportunities for the most popular clubs at the same time, as happened in England, where Amazon signed a deal with Tottenham Hotspur for a web series, All or Nothing.
How could the entry of Amazon Prime Video make an impact on the Italian market? This challenge might find a couple of obstacles: in the first place, the slow development of
Meanwhile, you have to consider the difficulty of changing the audience habits, especially among the older half of population not used to the IT languages. Anyway, the road is marked as many other platforms had started their sports proposal on the web: for example, Eurosport Player – controlled by Discovery – is an OTT service that integrates the TV offer on Sky with a live broadcast of basketball, tennis and winter sports events and tournaments, which have partial or limited coverage on the linear channels.
In the last two years, Discovery has even launched another two subscription-based services, Golf TV and Global Cycling Network, that aim to conquer specified sectors of clients with the complete coverage of golf tournaments and cycling races, including docu-series and special events.
Finally, a brief mention to DAZN, that opened a new way to watch football on TV, with his broad offer of Italian Serie A and the major European championships as Spanish Liga. These are some pieces of a puzzle that is being composed, but the final question is: who will score the decisive goal between pay-tv and OTT platforms? The match has just started.
Nonostante sia cresciuto nell'era del digitale, si professa analogico e nostalmalinconico. Cultore di Springsteen, dei saggi storici e delle gassose, ha scoperto Venti in piena pandemia: amore a prima vista. Ricambiato, una volta tanto.