The boss of Amazon’s television production arm has hinted that the company is planning significant expansion into sports broadcasting.
Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios, said at the Edinburgh international television festival that sport was a good opportunity for Amazon’s video streaming service.
The comments suggest Amazon could compete to win rights to show Premier League matches when the next auction launches next year.
Amazon recently won the rights to broadcast the ATP World Tour, the main men’s tennis tour. These rights are currently held by Sky and allow it to show the end-of-year ATP World Tour finals, won by Andy Murray last year at the O2 arena in London.
“People love sports – it’s big, it’s engaging, it really motivates people, so I think that’s a good opportunity,” Price said. “I think it’s definitely an opportunity we’ll explore.”
City analysts have already warned that Sky could be forced to pay an extra £600m annually to retain the lion’s share of Premier League matches because of potential competition from Google, Apple, Facebook and Netflix as well as Amazon.
The rights are split between Sky and BT at present, with Sky paying almost £4.2bn for the majority of matches in the last three-year deal.
Price refused to provide more details about what Amazon may bid for or its expansion plans in sport.
The Amazon boss also praised the success of the Grand Tour, the motoring show featuring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. “I would take four more of those [type of shows] any day,” he said.
Price suggested Amazon could eventually sell the rights to the Grand Tour to broadcasters around the world to show as a repeat, raising the prospect of Clarkson returning to terrestrial television in Britain.
Amazon underlined its ambitions in TV by announcing significant new shows at Edinburgh. These include Carnival Row, a fantasy noir starring Orlando Bloom as a police inspector investigating the murder of a faerie showgirl. The series will feature eight episodes and will be released in 2019.
Price said Amazon was keen for more big shows and that Game of Thrones, HBO’s fantasy epic, had changed the TV industry.
“Game of Thrones to me is to television what Jaws was to movies after the 70s,” he said. “Jaws and Star Wars came out and set an example. I think one thing that’s an example of is thinking out of the box and making it bigger and more cinematic and having bigger budgets. Bigger world, bigger budgets – that’s something I would anticipate throughout the marketplace.
“I think everybody wants to have one of the top 10 shows, one of the top five shows. That’s really what matters most. I think [Game of Thrones] set a good example and has really gone above and beyond in terms of delivering a big world with high stakes and everybody gets behind it.
“I think as people focus on getting in the top five and the top 10 some of the constraints will fall away – in terms of cast, who participates and how much you spend.”
Price, who was speaking to Channel 4’s chief creative officer, Jay Hunt, also denied that the rise of Amazon, Netflix and other services meant there was too much TV.
“I think there’s a lot of great TV,” he said. “I don’t find the world is running out of ideas, so I’m not sure I relate to that, or maybe I don’t understand it. But I’ve heard it many times – we can’t make any more peak TV.”
