Amazon has held talks with a range of internet service providers as it looks to ensure its debut coverage of football’s English Premier League does not meet any technical problems next week.
Amazon will broadcast a full programme of Premier League games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week via its Prime subscription service. It will mark the first round of fixtures shown by Amazon, which will also cover every match on Boxing Day.
Given the issues suffered by the likes of Eleven Sports, Eurosport and DAZN when launching new streaming offerings, there are some concerns that picture quality will affect Amazon’s coverage next week but the company insists it is well prepared for the challenge.
Amazon has discussed its Premier League coverage plans with BT, Sky, TalkTalk and other internet providers, reports The Times, in a move to ensure that customers have the necessary bandwidth to watch the matches. The report noted that some Amazon employees are concerned that the scale of the production has been underestimated.
An Amazon management source told the newspaper: “We know this will be one of the biggest streaming events in the world and Amazon has been proactively working with UK broadband providers for months to ensure that they have capacity to meet customer demand.”
Amazon acquired rights in the UK and Ireland to two rounds of Premier League fixtures in June 2018. The deal covers the three seasons spanning 2019-20 to 2021-22.
Last year, Amazon commenced its coverage of the US Open grand slam tennis tournament in the UK and Ireland in its first foray into the UK sports broadcasting market. The quality of the picture and sound was initially criticised by some customers but it has improved since Amazon added rights to the men’s ATP World Tour at the start of the year.