New Zealand Cricket has signed a six-year deal with Amazon Prime India. This deal will allow the OTT platform to broadcast all international games of NZ’s men’s and women’s teams in India. The new broadcast deal is set to kick in from the summer of the 2021/22 campaign.
Star Network used to broadcast all international games played by New Zealand at home in the past few years. The deal with Amazon will break the duopoly that Sony Ten Network and Star Network enjoys regarding broadcast rights of international games in India.
It is a landmark deal for Amazon as they become the first OTT platform to solely stream international cricket games in India. Hotstar used to stream international games that were telecasted on Star Network. It could be a game-changing moment as OTT platforms continue to venture into live sports streaming.
Considering the popularity of cricket in India, this deal is huge for Amazon. The prospects of OTT platforms to venture into streaming cricket across India will hinge on the success of this deal. It is also a significant piece of business for NZC as the board’s chief executive David White admitted that this deal is massive considering the adverse financial impacts of the pandemic on cricket.
Amazon is already streaming few Premier League games every year in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Facebook has the streaming rights of La Liga in India. Amazon also recently signed a deal to include the official TV channel of Juventus on the streaming application in Europe.
The rise in broadcast rights for OTT platforms will be bad news for fans and television networks in India. Fans will have to pay an additional subscription fee to watch games, while television networks will lose an important stream of revenue. However, the streaming of sports on OTT platforms remains the future of live sports across the globe.