How Amazon Quietly Grabbed Sports Rights to Attract Cord-Cutters
When it comes to major sports rights, streaming is still largely left out of the equation, as legacy media companies horde high-profile events for themselves, in the hope that it will keep customers connected to the cord. But with the pay-TV ecosystem continuing to hemorrhage subscribers at a record clip, Amazon Prime is among the streaming players carving out a nice shelf of sports rights that are exclusively catered to cord-cutters. The tech giant has spent the past few years cutting smaller, regionally-based deals with leagues while they are still locked into long-term TV deals. “We look at the customer in a particular country; we care really about what value we can drive for each customer,” said Marie Donoghue, VP of global sports video at Amazon and a former longtime ESPN executive. “We’re much more a part of a broad and deep entertainment service, so it really lets us be creative and figure out how to use sports in the best way.” Also Read: Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple Have 'Monopoly Power' Over Competitors, House Subcommittee Finds Amazon kicks off its fourth season of “Thursday Night Football” Thursday night, as part of a new NFL deal that also gives Prime...
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