What Amazon is doing with French football rights and the clues it offers to its plans for the Premier League
Amazon is yet to make its widely anticipated big move for Premier League football rights, being content so far to buy up handfuls of live games and bundle them with its Prime Video subscription.
But it is a different story in France, where the e-commerce behemoth is embarking on its first season as the main broadcaster of the top two divisions, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.
This week Amazon revealed more details of its plans – specifically, what it will cost consumers and how it will be packaged – in a move that offers clues as to what it may do with the Premier League if it does take on Sky and BT in future.
What will Amazon charge French consumers to watch Ligue 1 and 2?
Amazon has confirmed that live Ligue 1 and 2 matches will only be available to Prime Video subscribers.
They will have to pay €12.99 per month on a rolling contract that can be stopped at any point.
That is on top of the cost of Amazon Prime membership, which in France is priced at €5.99 a month of €49 per year.
What live French football rights does Amazon have and how will it broadcast them?
Amazon has bought 80 per cent of the live rights to games in Ligue 1 and 2 for the next three seasons.
That means it will show eight live matches per gameweek from each division on its Prime Video platform.
In addition, it intends to air a weekly highlights show on Sunday evenings before its showpiece live game.
Amazon is lobbying French football officials to bring the Sunday night kick-off time forward from 9pm to 8:45pm.
Subscribers will be able to watch online or via third-party digital television boxes.
Amazon has struck a deal to share live rights for the first 10 rounds of the Ligue 2 season with the free-to-air La Chaine L’Equipe.
Speaking on radio station RMC Sport in comments reported by Get French Football News, however, Amazon Europe’s head of sport Alex Green insisted it had no plans to sub-contract any of its Ligue 1 rights to rivals Canal+ or beIN Sports.
How did Amazon end up buying French football rights?
Amazon took advantage of French football’s financial crisis to swoop for the rights to Ligue 1 and 2 this summer.
It succeeded with a last-minute offer that will see it pay €275m-€300m a year to league chiefs the LFP.
Canal+ and beIN, which between them hold then remaining rights, failed with a joint rival bid.
The LFP was forced to sell the rights again after the collapse of its record €814m-a-year deal with Spanish company Mediapro.
That crisis, coupled with the effects of the pandemic, has left French football clubs in a vulnerable position.
What Premier League rights does Amazon have?
Amazon owns the rights to show 20 live Premier League matches per season as part of a deal costing it £30m a year until 2025.
However, unlike most broadcast contracts which are spread over a whole season, Amazon’s package is for all the fixtures in just two gameweeks.
It chooses rounds in late November and late December to attract Prime subscribers at key strategic times for the retailer.
Amazon moved into live Premier League football in 2019 and recently renewed its deal as all parties agreed to roll over current contracts for another three-year term.
Prime Video is also known for its All or Nothing documentaries on Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. It will begin filming its latest behind the scenes at Arsenal in the 2021-22 season.