Jay Marine: Prime Video ‘looking at’ FIFA World Cup rights

When it comes to live sports rights, Prime Video is “looking at everything,” including the 2030 men’s World Cup. Speaking at Bloomberg’s “Power Players” conference in N.Y. Thursday afternoon, Amazon Head of Prime Video U.S. Jay Marine answered a question about the company’s appetite for domestic soccer rights — including the World Cup, MLS and USL — by saying we’re “interested in all that.”

“The World Cup was fantastic here this year, and I thought the broadcasters did a great job with that,” Marine said. “That’s an incredible property. Time zone matters there, of course, and this one here was perfect. But it’s a great competition and we know international soccer, football very well. So, yeah, we’re looking at that for sure.”

Fox has held the U.S. TV rights to the competition since 2018 but will face stiff competition to retain them moving forward. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro has already publicized his company’s interest in bidding for the rights, and Netflix VP/Global Live Sports & Entertainment Gabe Spitzer told SBJ’s Richard Deitsch earlier this week that Netflix plans to talk to FIFA about the event later this year (though he clarified that FIFA has not yet begun a formal process and that plans to talk do not necessarily translate to a commitment to bid for the rights, or interest solely in the U.S. rights).

Marine hit a few other topics of the day at the Bloomberg event as well:

• On the FCC’s interest in fragmentation in sports media: “What we’re trying to do is help solve that problem. On Prime Video, it’s not just all the properties [Prime Video has rights to], but we also have other streaming partners who sell their subscriptions or channels within the Prime Video app. It’s one login, one password … Essentially, you can find every NFL game with the exception of Monday Night [Football] within Prime Video.”
• On Prime Video’s lean-in to local sports rights: “Those 30 teams we have [across leagues] are a mix of models. Sometimes it’s directly us, sometimes it’s an RSN but we’re the ‘digital home’ for that … We’ve been at live sports streaming since 2019 over in the U.K. with the Premier League. All those benefits we apply to our partners. We’d love to be the home of local sports, whether that means it’s Amazon-only or through partners. It could be some mix for a while.”
• His advice for the WNBA’s next commissioner: “I know there’s been a lot of criticism, but that league is on fire. We’re a partner with them. The growth in our audience numbers, we’re up 60%. The young stars in that league are amazing. Is it surprising that when you have that dramatic growth over the last couple of years that there’s some growing pains? No doubt. The goal of any next commissioner is, really, if we can focus the narrative on the game and the incredible players and talent, then they’re going to be in a very good spot.”