Amazon adds pay-per-view UFC bouts to live sports roster
Bouts can be bought and viewed by anyone with an account, even customerswho don’t subscribe to Prime service
It’s no secret that Amazon views live sports as something it can use to attract more subscribers to its Prime service. That’s why the company spent a reported $50 million to acquire the rights to Thursday night National Football League games this past season.
But, those NFL games came with a person’s Prime subscription.
Now, Amazon is looking to take its foray into live sports further, with pay-per-view showings of UFC weekend fights. And you don’t need to pay the $99-a-year Prime subscription to watch the brawls.
Amazon quietly began offering packages this week for UFC fights, including this Saturday’s UFC 222 match featuring the women’s featherweight title bout between Cris Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya. It’s the first time Amazon has sold pay-per-view sports events. The
package of fights will cost $64.99 and is available to anyone with an Amazon account, even those who don’t subscribe to Prime, and can be watched on any device where one would watch Amazon videos.
That might seem like a lot of dough for one-night’sworth of UFC entertainment. But, unlike pay-perviewsporting events offered through Comcast and other cable and satellite TV providers, no such pay-TV subscription is needed to watch the fights via Amazon. In other words, cord- cutters who have left traditional cable will now have access to one of the premium services that traditional payTV companies have been able to use to keep their customers on board with their subscription plans.