Amazon’s access all areas causing issues
AMAZON Prime signing a £10million minimum deal for a fly-on-the-wall Manchester City documentary series being filmed this season is causing major ructions in the Premier League.
The opposition is led by Sky Sports, who gave the go-ahead to the controversial Amazon project having a camera presence on match days, but are far from happy about it.
They are very annoyed City have signed such a deal for widespread access behind the scenes at the Etihad Stadium when Sky are paying billions for live match coverage which is subject to numerous filming restrictions. And there is also bewilderment that the Premier League should have let Amazon in so near the start of the next TV rights tender. Sky and BT Sport, who are also unimpressed, will be expected to bankroll the PL for another three years. Other leading clubs feel City have ridden roughshod through the PL’s media regulations with their Amazon deal. They blame City chief executive Ferran Soriano not being bothered about PL collectivity issues.
The PL say they are aware of the disquiet but that City have not broken any media rules. City say they are complying with the PL and that the Amazon series will attract a different demographic. lENGLAND’S
World Cup qualification victory over Slovenia last month was a special celebration for kit suppliers Nike. For the first time, they had all 11 in the England starting line-up sporting a swoosh on their boots. Nike’s historic 11 were Joe Hart, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Gary Cahill, Ryan Bertrand, Jordan Henderson, Eric Dier, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford (inset) and Harry Kane. Also for the first time, England’s side against Brazil tonight are likely to have more Nike clients than the opposition, who are the football team most associated with the US sports retail giants. Roberto Firmino, Marcelo and Gabriel Jesus are all adidas sponsored. IT would have been long odds for the Remembrance minute’s silence to have been better observed at Wembley last Friday than Twickenham a day later. But that was the case because some spectators in Twickenham’s West Stand thought the pre-match ceremony had ended after the trumpeter’s Last Post.
Nobody at Twickenham on November 10 next year will be unaware of the Armistice — with it being the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War and New Zealand providing the opposition. RFU preparations for the centenary Remembrance have already started. And expect a poppy interwoven on the All Black kit, bearing in mind New Zealand’s heavy involvement in both World Wars. lCHELSEA
commercial director Chris Townsend is adopting a similar strategy to that which he used in the same role for the 2012 London Olympics organising committee to bring in £750million of sponsorship. He is looking to double Chelsea’s revenue over the next seven years by signing a collection of global partners. London 2012’s first partnership signing was a high street bank and it’s possible that will be the same with Chelsea. A new app will be launched next year to trigger what is hoped will be a huge increase in Chelsea’s social media following.