If you’re still holding on to your cable subscription because of that last lingering thread (i.e., to watch live programs), it might finally be time to cut the cord.
Until now, one of the main reasons people have stayed locked into their cable subscriptions could be summed up in one word: sports.
Due to their devotion to pigskins, hockey pucks, baseballs and more, sports fanatics have refused to let go of their expensive cable bills. But Amazon just changed the game when it comes to how people can watch live games.
Amazon Prime Users Can Now Watch Live NFL Thursday Night Football
Amazon will broadcast 10 Thursday night games in the upcoming football season to its Prime members only.
It’s kinda a big deal. OK, a huge deal.
To put it in perspective, ESPN, a household name closely tied to the world of sports, doesn’t even regularly broadcast NFL games because of how incredibly expensive it is. In 2011, the NFL signed a television rights deal with Fox, NBC and CBS for $28 billion over nine years, just so the networks could broadcast the games — that doesn’t even include the cost of producing them.
There’s no official number for how much the online retail giant shelled out for the right to stream these games, but some publications, including The Wall Street Journal, are reporting around $50 million, according to “people familiar with the matter.” That’s five times higher than Twitter paid to stream games in 2016.
Sure, $50 million may sounds like chump change compared to the combined $28 billion networks paid, but what this deal really means is that Amazon is slowly but surely starting to compete with network television.
As reported by Yahoo! Finance, Amazon beat out Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for broadcasting rights.
Amazon’s purchase is a milestone in the push for it to become the preferred choice for consumer entertainment. For $99 a year, Amazon Prime members get free two-day shipping, music streaming, on-demand shows and movies — and now, sports.
CBS and NBC will also air the 10 Thursday night football games Amazon will broadcast, but who knows — if Amazon outperforms them, we may all be telling Alexa to “turn on the big game” in the near future.
Your Turn: Will you watch NFL games on Amazon?
Kelly Smith is a junior writer and engagement specialist at The Penny Hoarder. Catch her on Twitter at @keywordkelly.
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