Say goodbyes to firewalls, VPNs, and bootlegged feeds.
Australia’s new deal to air its Olympic Swimming Trials on Amazon Prime won’t just make the meet available to Australians. Rather, the meet will be available globally in every country with access to Amazon’s video service.
- Australia’s Olympic Swimming Trials: June 12-17, 2021 in Adelaide
Prime Video is available almost everywhere in the world with access to internet – with exceptions being Mainland China, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. This is an expansion from its original market of the US, UK, Japan, Germany, and Austria.
In much of the world, a Prime Video subscription is included with an Amazon Prime subscription.
The same global distribution is expected for the qualification meets for the 2022 World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
In Australia, subscription numbers for Prime are still fairly low, with only around 207,000 subscribers. In the U.S., by comparison, there are over 112 million Prime subscribers, covering more than 80% of American households.
Was this deal brokered by the Prime minister?
Who knows ? He shares the same “Fairy Godmother” as Swimming AUS ….snark, snark
This is awesome. Now, let’s get NCAA swimming on board, USA Swimming, etc. Firewalls are stupid for a global sport. And, as much as I love swimming, it remains very much a minor spectator sport, so the only real way to amalgamate eyeballs is to open up events globally, either free or with easy pay-per-view access.
Can we watch without a subscription?
No, but Amazon has a free one month trial that you can just cancel after it’s over.
Some Americans actually think that swimming is Australia’s most popular sport. The reality is that it’s a very minor sport just like it is everywhere else. The fact the national federation couldn’t get a broadcasting deal with an Australian network proves it.
It is probably the most popular participation sport…but not viewing sport! Trials are at my local pool….can’t wait!
If you’re talking swimming for fun then yes. Competitive swimming is another matter as the expense becomes ever more prohibitive. Hence AUS now draws from a talent pool that is ever decreasing and almost exclusively now from those of more affluent/private schools background. This is not exclusive to swimming but common across the board for many Olympic sports.
Football or for those who follow egg ball sports Soccer is by far the most popular participation sport in Australia.
Netball has to pretty high in the list too
If you’re talking competitive sports, then soccer/football would certainly be no1. Netball historically was the largest women’s competitive sport but the growth of women’s soccer over the past 20 years has cut a big chunk out of that.
Recreational swimming (which includes just splashing around in the pool and the beach) not necessarily competitive swimming.
I’ve only got 5 on my team so far. 4 women & Zac .
This is good news for global watching, but not for the average Aussie punter. Not many people have prime in AUS as outlined in the article. Gone are the days of everyday Aussies tuning in to trials and caring a little more about swimming. I remember when I competed in 2016 and had a couple school teachers saying they just happened to be flicking through the channels and saw me race, was awesome.
Which was your race in 2016?? Just curious
200 Backstroke… Seebohm beat me by over 5 seconds smh
oh wow thats so cool, must be a nerve wracking experience// i thought belinda hocking won in 2016 ?
Being beaten by a world champion by 5 seconds means your time was probably still quite impressive!
You can get a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime I think.
Huh? It’s easy in Australia to get free trial
That’s awesome. Are US trials also going to be on Prime????
eBay
Alibaba
Schedule here FYI:
Kyle’s and Madi Wilson’s home pool too.
https://www.swimming.org.au/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2021%20Australian%20Swimming%20Trials%20-%20Program%20of%20Events%20V2.pdf