Tennis triumph
Amazon has struck gold with Raducanu’s US Open. Now it must decide whether to share the final with terrestrial channels
When Emma Raducanu unpicked Maria Sakkari to reach the US Open final, the 18-year-old tennis sensation entered the big league.
Not only did she become the first qualifier to reach the last leg of the competition – she also emerged as the first British woman to claim a final place for 44 years.
Saturday’s battle with Leylah Fernandez, however, is not just a seminal moment in the career of the teenage sports supremo. It is also be a landmark moment for Amazon, the American tech colossus that will broadcast its first live sporting event of national importance in its largest European market.
Amazon – founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, who is still the $1.8trillion (£1.3 trillion) company’s largest shareholder – has been building its position in UK sports TV since it snapped up the rights to the ATP World Tour Tennis four years ago.
Deals for the Rugby Autumn Nations, the US Open and the Premier League Christmas fixtures have followed, but the company has never tried to rival Sky or BT in bidding for the nation’s most coveted sports TV packages.
With national fervour building behind Raducanu’s achievement, the audience coup is likely to spark speculation that Amazon could make a bolder bet on British sport.
The move would mark a departure from its current strategy. Amazon’s media deals have always held a wider purpose beyond simply attracting a larger audience to its subscription streaming service, Prime Video.
By snapping up the gaming streaming platform Twitch, the James Bond studio MGM and Premier League fixtures over the festive period, Amazon has one goal in mind – turning audiences into Prime subscribers who will buy more groceries, furniture, clothes and books from its everything online store.
So far, the approach has kept its spending on UK sports TV rights relatively modest. It has been happy to cherry-pick smaller deals around the edges of pay-tv company Sky.
Sports rights deal makers have long hoped for a huge cheque from an US tech company to stoke up competitive tension with pay-tv broadcasters, but the response has been muted.
An opportunity to muscle in on a deal for Six Nations rugby never emerged, with free-to-air broadcasters ITV and BBC getting the latest package.
Meanwhile a chance to claim a greater slice of the Premier League football coverage was bypassed in May when Amazon – alongside Sky and BT – agreed to roll over an existing £4.7bn television deal, which handed the US business a small bundle of 20 matches a season. That comes despite a surge in viewers during lockdown as people binged on streaming services. Prime Video users rocketed 48pc in the UK to 9.5m in the third quarter of last year, according to Enders Analysis.
Across the Atlantic, it has been a different story. In March, Amazon paid $1bn per year until 2023 for exclusive rights to Thursday broadcasts of the National Football League (NFL). The question is whether such a move will act as a precursor to a wider offensive on sports rights in Europe.
“Amazon has had a very pragmatic approach to [sports TV rights] and so far their spending has only been going in one direction, and that is up. Across countries they have been increasing their exposure and buying more important rights,” says François Godard of Enders Analysis.
“Will [the US Open final] change their view in the UK market? No. Tennis works very well for Amazon,
‘Tennis works very well for Amazon because it draws awareness to the broader Prime service’
‘Amazon has had a very pragmatic approach and so far their spending has only been going in one direction’
not because it triggers subscription sales for tennis coverage, but because it is a big event that draws awareness of the broader Prime service so people will buy more products.”
Amazon may also find itself edging towards collaboration rather than competition. While it is unlikely to join forces to buy sports rights, it may get more comfortable partnering with free-to-air broadcasters to help drive publicity for its live coverage.
The BBC announced yesterday that it will show the highlights to the US Open final, with Amazon maintaining a tight grip over live coverage.
Raducanu’s match will serve Amazon’s broadcast executives with plenty of intel that could drive their decision-making around live UK sports rights in the future.
But viewers might be better off looking to France if they want an insight into Amazon’s next steps. In June, Amazon trumped Vivendi to buy the broadcasting rights to the majority of France’s top-flight games over the next three seasons. The move not only made Amazon the biggest sports rights holder in the French football market, but also changed its business model. Rather than offering those games as part of their French customers’ Amazon Prime subscription of €49 per year, the live coverage came with an added charge of €12.99 per month.
If the French strategy proves successful, Amazon could dial up its plans across Europe.
Raducanu’s big test on Saturday could increase Amazon’s confidence its bet on live sport is working.
Just as the BBC was forced to play second fiddle to the American pay-tv broadcaster Discovery during the Olympics, the days of the big sporting spectacle bankrolled by the licence fee appear numbered.