Amazon Seeks Rights To Stream Live Sporting Events

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As an Amazon Prime subscriber, I'm all for more content like this being added to the service but not if it is going to drive up the price of Prime. I primarily use prime for shipping (saves me a ton of money), the music, movies and such are just an added bonus. What do you think about Amazon adding live sports events?

What can Amazon do to draw more customers to its Prime service, which combines shipping discounts with streaming video and other perks in a $99/year subscription? Amazon is reportedly negotiating to carry live streaming video for Prime customers, potentially including events like tennis, golf, soccer, rugby, and auto racing.
 
As long as they don't corner the market on live events, I would probably be cool with this.
 
I see nothing wrong with this so long that things remain a reasonable price. I'm never going back to cable.
 
Make it an add-on to Prime like they do with other 'premium' channels? That's fine. Don't give it to everybody though. that would be a waste .
 
I'd be more interested in historical footage. Eventually releasing all sporting events ever recorded. I'm not at all thrilled for live events. Most of the time the sports I'm interested in are at the worst possible times.
 
Not a Prime customer and see nothing in this announcement that will change that. Looks like the proposed current offering is, at least in the US market, third tier sports events. If they are trying to attract non US customers, offering soccer might just do the trick. This might get more entertaining if the initial trial goes well and Amazon starts bidding for some of the college football games now going to the lesser tier ESPN networks.
 
I don't really watch sports, so I wouldn't want to pay more for it, but if it's free, then I don't care either way.
 
This would be HUGE if it passed. It seems like a lot of people are holding onto cable for the sports, they could finally have the option to cut the cord.
 
HeavensCloud said:
This would be HUGE if it passed. It seems like a lot of people are holding onto cable for the sports, they could finally have the option to cut the cord.
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If they had enough sports for you to cut the cord, it'd have to go up in price. Sports are insanely expensive. Paying for ESPN is one thing I've always hated, because there are probably 2-4 weeks in the year where I might watch ESPN and it's a very expensive channel (by far the most expensive non-premium channel on cable.
 
nilepez said:
If they had enough sports for you to cut the cord, it'd have to go up in price. Sports are insanely expensive. Paying for ESPN is one thing I've always hated, because there are probably 2-4 weeks in the year where I might watch ESPN and it's a very expensive channel (by far the most expensive non-premium channel on cable.
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Like Fuzzy said above, they would probably make it an add on subscription like they do with Starz and what-not. An extra $XX per month in your Prime account will be a hell of a lot cheaper that a cable bill if you keep it mostly for the sports.
 
Rahh said:
if it doesn't change price why not?
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Because it will either change the price or cause them to make reductions elsewhere (like less movies). As other have said, sports is expensive and something I hate paying for since I don't watch it.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Like Fuzzy said above, they would probably make it an add on subscription like they do with Starz and what-not. An extra $XX per month in your Prime account will be a hell of a lot cheaper that a cable bill if you keep it mostly for the sports.
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Only if they have the NBA, NFL, MLB and arguably MLS. That's probably hundreds of billions of dollars. If they're only charging by the sport, then the price will be even higher. If ESPN was optional, I believe the cost would rise to 25-30/month per household.

Make no mistake, if we ever get to true ala carte programming, you will pay more to get less. This isn't a new idea. It was discussed in colleges 25 years ago (and probably before that). The only way I see an exception to that is if you don't get sports programming. It's be especially high if they can't deliver both national and local commercials that are all unskippable. As it stands, if you have cable and you use apps like CNN or CNBC (not sure about ESPN), commercials are almost non-existent. When they have a break you get a screen saying they'll be back soon.

The only way that networks can justify live sports is the value of promoting other shows while people watch. So again, you're very unlikely to save money by cutting the cord and if you do, it will be short lived, because once that becomes the norm, the prices will go up. The same is going to happen to Netflix. They can't lose money forever.
 
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