Amazon and Swimming Australia have struck a deal that will allow the Australian Swimming Championships to be broadcasted live on the company’s streaming platform for the next two years, Sport Business reported on Wednesday.
The exclusive two-year agreement will allow the various national championship meets to be streamed on Prime Video globally, including in Australia, beginning with June’s Olympic Trials.
Swimming Australia has been searching for a rights deal since its agreement with Seven Network, an Australian free-to-air broadcaster, was terminated after the nation’s Olympic and Paralympic Trials were cancelled last year due to the pandemic.
With the Olympic Games pushed back one year to the summer of 2021, the first event streamed on Prime Video will be the Australian Swimming Trials, June 12-17, at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre in Oaklands Park (near Adelaide).
Leading into Trials, Swimming Australia will continue to stream coverage of its events on its SwimTV platform.
“Sport is an intrinsic part of Australians’ lives, and Amazon Prime Video has already established itself as the home of captivating Australian sports docu-series including The Test and the upcoming AFL docu-series Making Their Mark,” said Hushidar Kharas, head of Prime Video Australia.
“The launch of live sports streaming on Prime Video in Australia is a natural progression for us, and we are proud to be partnering with Swimming Australia to bring the iconic and beloved sport to Prime Video customers.”
Amazon has been involved in several sports streaming deals recently, including submitting a bid for domestic broadcast rights to French football’s Ligue 1, according to Sport Business. It is also currently filming a behind-the-scenes series documenting the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs 2021 season.
“To be able to partner our sport with one of the biggest streaming services in the world provides us with fantastic opportunities to deliver premium live swimming content to Australians and a global Prime Video audience,” added Swimming Australia President Kieren Perkins.
“Swimming is ingrained in our culture, and we know that millions of fans support the Australian Dolphins Swim Team when they compete. Also, our current generation of swimmers, including those who have an eye on competing in Paris 2024 and beyond, will love being able to live stream the sport wherever they are.”
Two-time Australian Olympic medalist Mitch Larkin added: “This is a great result for our community, including swimmers, clubs, state associations and fans. Having our events streamed live on Amazon Prime Video will inspire the next generation of athletes who will be able to watch the best swimmers in the country compete.”
That is AWESOME!
June trials are just over 4 months away.. It is currently impossible to buy an air ticket & expect to actually arrive . ..At this rate only Madi & Kyle willlbe swimming at ttrials.in Adelaide.
They can boost the prize awards by giving the swimmers shares of stock
This is a big win for Oz Dolphin Swimming as well as the rest of us who eagerly await the next swimming video event.
So we have to pay to watch the trials ?
Yep. I have no problems paying but this means only the most dedicated fans will watch.
I looked it up because I was curious. With Prime Video being an Amazon Prime perk in the US, there are 112 million subscribers to Prime in the US. That doesn’t mean everyone in the country has access to Prime Video, but it’s about as high as any cable channel, and probably covers most Americans.
In Australia, it’s only 207,000. Both numbers as of December 2020. That was shocking to me.
Can only be a matter of time before it grows. Even when it does, You probably still lose a portion of the audience who would “drive by” on television, but even that access had become dicey recently. So I don’t blame them for making this move.
I am double shocked by that number. I would have guessed 1-2 million.
The benefits of Prime are much less in Australia because the Australian store just isn’t as good as the US one and there’s no groceries either. I’m personally not subscribed to Prime but I will just for the swimming and then cancel again.
I have prime in Australia but only since I had more time at home in 2020. Free TV in Australia was pretty good for a long time so paying subscriptions was not a big priority until more recently.
I live in Europe and basically know nobody under the age of 60 that doesn’t have Prime.
I have Prime & I’m excited. Surprised but not surprised by these numbers.
Australians have not taken pay TV very well, Fox or Sky was never very big here neither even during it’s prime (excuse the pun).
However, most people I know have Netflix. Free TV had a lot of sport but 3 main sports only, Rugby League, Australian Football league (AFL) & Cricket, I’m only into cricket from those sports.
I get my sporting fix elsewhere from pay TV, so I have to pay.
But excited of Prime.
You are correct both with regards to the (historically) good provision of sport on free to air TV & that the cable providers (FOXTEL, Optus) haven’t always been value for money.
Now, with the rollout of broadband nationally; they’re haemorraging a good deal of their remaining market share to net based platforms such as Netflix, Kayo (sports) & now Prime. It will be a case of adapt/transfer/exit the market for the cable operaters.
Fox are already switching to Kayo subscription service.
Live sport is the only thing people get it for.
Fox is/was huge. But only for NRL/AFL. Pretty sure at one point a while ago about a third of Australia had Foxtel/Austar. Its gotten smashed by streaming, and now a lot of people just use Kayo instead.
I’m pretty disappointed this won’t be on free to air tv.
Lets hope the commentators are up to standard been a real issue of late
Would love Ray Warren and Nicole Livingstone back. What is encouraging is that some of the commentators of the current SLSQ Ironman on 9 and local events in triathlon being streamed have been great.
This sounds like really good news!
It sure seems so!
Nice. I can look forward to watching these easily without having to search for a stream now!
Would be good if AP could stream more national champs as well.