Ahead of Sky Sports’ first-ever broadcast of a Premier League match in 1992, their promotional advert finished with the tagline ‘It’s a whole new ball game’.
Now, ahead of tonight’s round of League fixtures, it is Amazon looking to move the goalposts.
For the first time ever, the tech giant is joining the football broadcasting world as it prepares to stream all 10 of the League’s midweek fixtures across the next three days, starting with Bournemouth’s trip to Crystal Palace tonight.
It is uncharted territory for the Premier League and a move that could change the way fans watch football forever, with every match from a round of fixtures made available to supporters.
There has been speculation for some years that an over-the-top provider would join the Premier League broadcasting race, but it was not until June 2018 that Amazon showed its hand.
Apple, Facebook, Google and Netflix were all linked with bidding for the broadcast package, which contains the first round of midweek fixtures in December and all 10 matches on Boxing Day, but it was Amazon which swooped and completed a three-year deal at an estimated cost of £90million.
It is a dipping of the toe from the tech giant which, perhaps, like its rivals, is wary about the challenge that awaits.
Amazon needs only ask streaming giants DAZN and Eleven Sports about the issues of broadcasting live sport, with the latter infamously failing to show Brooks Koepka’s decisive putt to win golf’s US PGA Championship in 2018.
Amazon has had its own problems too, with viewers complaining about its coverage of tennis’s US Open in 2018. It knows the backlash will be even greater if tomorrow’s Merseyside derby has issues.
The company is, however, confident it can deliver after extensive talks with internet providers in the UK to ensure necessary bandwidth is available for customers. That is the fear for Amazon: it can prepare all it wants but is still at the mercy of the providers.
In fairness, Amazon’s continued dialogue with the likes of BT and TalkTalk shows how it is trying to leave nothing to chance.
Alex Green, managing director of Prime Video Sport (Europe), said: “We will have a production presence at every stadium, including not just commentators but also a presenter and pundits. We will have more than 70 on-screen presenters, pundits, reporters and commentators on Boxing Day alone. In total, more than 2,000 people will work on the broadcasts.”
In Pictures | Premier League on Amazon Prime, gameweek 15
Amazon is also planning to broadcast its Goals Centre programme, which will show goals as they go in around the country, while web, mobile and Fire TV viewers can use the ‘X-Ray function’ to track live match stats and catch up on key highlights as matches unfolds.
However, the greatest change for consumers is the price. For existing Prime customers, Premier League football comes at no extra cost, while newcomers can sign up for a free trial tonight and cancel it upon its conclusion.
Such a price point, while only for a limited number of games, is unprecedented and gives a glimpse of what the future may hold.
Spotify has revolutionised how people listen to music, Netflix has changed how we watch television and film, so why can’t Amazon change the broadcasting of football?
“If you brought in something like a Netflix of football, got 100 million subscribers around the world paying £9 a month, you’d have no churn because no one would resist that price point,” says former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan.
As Sky Sports said in 1992, it really is a whole new ball game — but now Amazon hopes to take possession of it.
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