AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Stu Woo 

LONDON-- Amazon.com Inc. boosted its bet on live sports programming, Thursday, by winning the rights to broadcast some soccer games from the popular English Premier League.

The broadcasting rights are limited to Britain and Ireland, where viewers will be able to watch a small number of games on the company's Amazon Prime video service. Still, the move extends Amazon's so-far modest foray into live sporting events.

Amazon last year broadcast 10 Thursday-night NFL games, typically the league's least-compelling match ups. That was part of a deal valued at around $50 million, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Amazon and the NFL renewed the deal for 2018 and 2019.

In keeping with its NFL foray, the Premier League deal is a small one for Amazon. The rights cover three seasons beginning next year. They include a very limited package of games--just a few days a year in December, including the Dec. 26 Boxing Day holiday. The Premier League hosts several matches a day--up to 10.

The more popular matches were gobbled up earlier this year by British pay-TV giant Sky PLC and BT Group PLC. Sky, for instance, bought rights for 128 games a season for GBP1.2 billion ($1.6 billion.) Amazon's price for its more limited package wasn't disclosed.

Amazon will stream the games on its Prime video and one-day delivery service which costs GBP79-a-year and competes with Netflix Inc.

The Premier League and Amazon declined to comment on the deal's value.

Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 07, 2018 08:37 ET (12:37 GMT)

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