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Rock icon and TV star Ozzy Osbourne seems to be about to sign a landing on the launch of the Madden NFL 08 videogame. (Photograph by Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic)
FilmMagic
Amazon has been slowly however certainly shifting into streaming sports activities content material the previous few years. The corporate shopping for online game writer Digital Arts would match proper into that playbook.
Amazon’s technique to date has been to make use of reside sports activities programming, corresponding to NFL “Thursday Night Football,” telecasts of the New York Yankees (Amazon owns an fairness stake within the staff’s YES Community) and the English Premier League to increase Amazon Prime subscribers and maybe launch a sports activities bundle.
(Right here’s my interview with Marie Donoghue, Amazon’s vp of worldwide sports activities video, just a little over a yr in the past on the corporate’s sports activities technique:)
It was reported Thursday that Amazon Prime Video and DirecTV struck a multi-year agreement that enables enterprise homeowners to stream “Thursday Evening Soccer” for his or her patrons. Amazon’s “TNF” broadcasts, together with pregame, halftime and postgame protection, might be out there to greater than 300,000 sports activities bars, eating places, retail shops, resort lounges, casinos and sports activities books, amongst different venues throughout the U.S.
With Digital Arts, Amazon could be extending its attain into the growing esports house. EA’s popular games embody FIFA 21 and Madden NFL. EA’s titles embody UFC, F1, NHL and PGA Tour. The acquisition of EA, very like streaming, targets a youthful demographic within the sports activities house.
In fiscal 2022, EA reported web revenue of $311 million on $1.8 billion of income.
