VOD : Netflix/Streaming Services

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Horizon

It's a test for Amazon, of course I can accept that.

On funding, the metrics of it, we spoke about this before, but think about what Amazon is first and foremost, a retailer. At the most basic level they can flog football shirts, at a more complex level they could use their vast data, to flog far more products and services to football fans and sell that data to third parties, so I wouldn't assume that there would be a £30-40 football sub, it maybe less, more, or none at all.

Where are the customers going to come from, you ask? Simple. If they win the best packages from Sky, it will be Sky customers. Do you think people who are massive football fans would not switch from Sky to Amazon, becuase I think they would. Which leads me to another point and why Amazon or someone else might do this, it knocks the competition out, in fact, it would kill them.

It’s not simple to say these customers are like for like and would move across quickly. The proof: the absence of a bid at all. Sky paying less than they did last time out.

No football subscription at all is absolute fanstasyland. Grab your nearest pocket calculator and divide 5 000 000 000 by anything you like to grasp the challenge.

Sky's business model is based on football and from that, all the other stuff like films, Sky Q etc. But it's football first and without it, Sky's whole business would have to change.

As more than half of the country already has a Amazon account, it would not be hard for Amazon to up sell football to those customers wanting it. Or Facebook, or Apple etc.

Back of a fag packet calculations (I’ve not even seen those) and sticking £5bn up for a return are wildly different things.

Finally and I've said before, Amazon are global in nature, so one day it might be PL rights for the UK, next day they might try and get things changed so that they can bid for global rights. There's a lot of Chinese PL fans out there.

Substitute every reference to £5bn above for £10bn. You’re also assuming Amazon would be more efficient as distributing EPL into these territories than the incumbents. You don’t have to look far, Eleven Sports, to see how the popularity of La Liga in this country varied a lot when you asked folk to put their hand in their pocket for that alone.

I do agree that Sky’s business model is precarious without Premiership football - that’s why I consider them a good barometer of the falling value of the rights in the absence of a competing model.

[muppetman11]

I'll ask again ,

Being that Amazon was started and headquartered in the USA why have they never looked to capture key US Sporting rights ?

It's dipped it's toe in with Thursday NFL games why has it never looked to gain more and take the global rights ?

It's also worth mentioning that Prime in the US is $99 as opposed to the £79 charged here.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I'll ask again ,

Being that Amazon was started and headquartered in the USA why have they never looked to capture key US Sporting rights ?

It's dipped it's toe in with Thursday NFL games why has it never looked to gain more and take the global rights ?

It's also worth mentioning that Prime in the US is $99 as opposed to the £79 charged here.

So its cheaper in the states.

[muppetman11]

Correction on my earlier post it's $119.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Correction on my earlier post it's $119.

So 76p a month more in the states. My math was a bit wrong there. £90.50 eqivalent.

[jfman]

I'm astonished that this is the talking point and not muppetman's actual question. Why are Amazon not blowing folk out the water for US sports rights?

[pip08456]

Perhaps because I don't care.

[muppetman11]

Stick to Kodi pip

[jfman]

Fair enough. I look forward to someone actually tacking the question.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by pip08456

Perhaps because I don't care.

Just imagine the 10's of millions new subscribers they would attract..

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Stick to Kodi pip

I fully intend to mm.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

Fair enough. I look forward to someone actually tacking the question.

Well, the simple answer is that Amazon is expanding and they are currently exploring the art of streaming without the glitches. You know as well as I do that streaming is hardly perfect at the moment and latency is a headache.

However, we are getting there, and I have no doubt at all that sports streaming will take off one the issues are resolved.

I really don't understand the mindset that because something hasn't happened yet that it never will. History proves that theory wrong. There has to be a start point for everything, surely!

As for Amazon and the Premier League, it is now being reported that Amazon is very pleased with their coverage, and it would seem that this will encourage them to put more than a toe in the water this time.

I was pleased to see that the matches were free of extra charge, and Amazon probably covered most of the cost of this by the increased number of subscriptions they took as a result.

If they do bid for and get the rights next time around, it will be very interesting to see how much they charge subscribers for that. I would not be at all surprised if the cost came down from the prices Sky are charging their customers.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Well, the simple answer is that Amazon is expanding and they are currently exploring the art of streaming without the glitches. You know as well as I do that streaming is hardly perfect at the moment and latency is a headache.

However, we are getting there, and I have no doubt at all that sports streaming will take off one the issues are resolved.

I really don't understand the mindset that because something hasn't happened yet that it never will. History proves that theory wrong. There has to be a start point for everything, surely!

As for Amazon and the Premier League, it is now being reported that Amazon is very pleased with their coverage, and it would seem that this will encourage them to put more than a toe in the water this time.

I was pleased to see that the matches were free of extra charge, and Amazon probably covered most of the cost of this by the increased number of subscriptions they took as a result.

If they do bid for and get the rights next time around, it will be very interesting to see how much they charge subscribers for that. I would not be at all surprised if the cost came down from the prices Sky are charging their customers.

We have just had the Champions league rights sold for the next three years and Amazon had a great chance to bid for them as they would have blown the other bidders out of the water.

Now ask yourself why did they not bid for them? and please tell us when you come up with a answer?

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

It’s not simple to say these customers are like for like and would move across quickly. The proof: the absence of a bid at all. Sky paying less than they did last time out.

No football subscription at all is absolute fanstasyland. Grab your nearest pocket calculator and divide 5 000 000 000 by anything you like to grasp the challenge.

How is the absence of a bid proof that Sky customers would not move quickly to Amazon if they took on the Premiership League? It does not follow at all!

I don't think anyone has suggested that Amazon would show football for free if they won the bid from Sky. However, they might well do it cheaper.

---------- Post added at 16:49 ---------- Previous post was at 16:41 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

We have just had the Champions league rights sold for the next three years and Amazon had a great chance to bid for them as they would have blown the other bidders out of the water.

Now ask yourself why did they not bid for them? and please tell us when you come up with a answer?

As I said to jfman earlier, the problems of streaming are still being sorted out. You wouldn't expect Amazon to spend shedloads of money before testing it out, would you?

Evidently, they are pleased with the way coverage in the UK was played out with no major issues, so maybe that is enough to spur them on further.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

How is the absence of a bid proof that Sky customers would not move quickly to Amazon if they took on the Premiership League? It does not follow at all!

These are hugely successful, profitable, capitalist enterprises seeking to maximise shareholder value. The whole point of the blind auction process is for everyone to evaluate what revenues and profits they could extract from the rights and bid on that basis.

If it was that easy surely someone out of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, or even BT would bid the same as Sky and just do it.

I don't think anyone has suggested that Amazon would show football for free if they won the bid from Sky. However, they might well do it cheaper.

It's hard to see how a standalone subscription could be brought below the price of the discounted Now TV options and return over £5bn in revenues.

As I said to jfman earlier, the problems of streaming are still being sorted out. You wouldn't expect Amazon to spend shedloads of money before testing it out, would you?

Amazon have been streaming NFL for some time, tennis for some time. BBC have been streaming football on iPlayer for years.

Evidently, they are pleased with the way coverage in the UK was played out with no major issues, so maybe that is enough to spur them on further.

Maybe.