It would seem that WNBA is going to be added to sports that Amazon are broadcasting. They are going to be doing this via their Prime streaming platform. They will be showing 16 games every season and the deal is also going to allow them to produce a lot of original content every week too. This will all be done throughout the regular season. They will be hosting the Commissioner’s Cup final which is going to be on August 12th too. This will be the first time Amazon has had broadcasting rights to women’s sport. (They have tennis tournaments like the ATP Tour which includes women competitors but has men too.)
The Rise of Streaming
Streaming has changed significantly over the years. If you take a look at the entertainment industry, you will see that it has undergone a radical transformation. Take the online casino industry for example. At one point, you could only play games in a brick-and-mortar location but now you can log onto the Dunder online casino and access thousands of games to play from your home. The same concept applies to the streaming world for video. You can watch thousands of titles, and for this reason, Amazon has been forced to grow their offerings so that they can keep up with the demand and compete within the wider landscape.
Amazon are the only streaming service to enter into sports broadcasting so far, or at least sports in the traditional sense. Twitch and YouTube have all brokered deals with gaming studios to have exclusive rights to esports competitions and leagues, but traditional sports haven’t made the jump to these kinds of platforms yet. It is, most likely, due to the costs of acquiring such rights. It was expected that streaming services would have been far more active in bidding for the soccer, basketball, and football games but, so far, TV channels have kept their dominance.
Amazon Deals
Amazon has already started a deal with the NFL and they are going to be streaming Thursday Night Football. You also have Seattle Sounders FC and they are going to be streaming all of the MLS games. The Barclays Premier League has found a home on Prime Video too. Now it would seem that Amazon is going to be adding to the offerings they have as they are going to be showcasing Seattle Storm. They have games that come from the hometown streaming service and this is going to be running all the way to September.
At the end of the day, the WNBA is one of the most premier sporting leagues in the whole world and they serve as a huge inspiration to millions of aspiring athletes. The Vice President of Global Sports has stated that they are utterly delighted at the fact that they can bring outstanding athletes to the platform. The WNBA is going to be available across a huge range of devices and this is going to be available to those who have a Prime Membership. Only time will tell what the future holds but at the end of the day, it’s looking bright for the world of sport and streaming right now.
