Amazon makes big bet on New Zealand to crack Indian market
(2020/11/11)
- Reference: 1605071169
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/11/amazon_prime_new_zealand_cricket_deal/
- Source link:
Amazon has made a big bet on cricket played on New Zealand as a vehicle to help it crack the Indian market.
Cricket New Zealand overnight announced that Indian viewers hoping to watch cricket played in the South Pacific nation will only be able to do so on Amazon Prime, the retail giant’s Netflix clone.
The deal will start in late 2021 and run for six years, a period during which the Indian national men’s’ cricket team will twice tour New Zealand.
Cricket matches featuring India’s national team can literally attract hundreds of millions of viewers. New Zealand’s time zone - seven-and-a-half hours behind India – means matches played there will screen during prime time on the sub-continent.
Which is almost certainly why Amazon has done this deal: it now owns some of the hottest content in India for six years, even if only two of those years will feature Indian teams and the other four will see rather-less-exciting matches between New Zealand and other opponents.
Cricket's average-busting mathematician Tony Lewis pulls up stumps [1]READ MORE
And it’s all behind a paywall that costs $1.75 a month, or $13.50 a year, to climb. And of course signing up for Prime also makes shopping on Amazon cheaper while also allowing the company to learn more about its users and recommend them more stuff to buy. Amazon will clearly hope that many Indians come for the cricket and stay for other services.
Neither Amazon nor Cricket New Zealand was rude enough to reveal the price of the deal, but the rights for India’s imminent tour of Australia are thought to have cost around $100m for a potential 26 days and around 200 hours of live cricket content.
The New Zealand deal is probably worth less, because while its teams punch above their weight they generally feature fewer big stars than Australia. But Cricket New Zealand has nonetheless said it is “delighted and proud” with the deal, and more than pleased to have scored a streaming deal at a time cable and free-to-air broadcasters are struggling to match the sums they paid for sports rights in less-disrupted times. ®
Get our [2]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/03/crickets_averagebusting_mathematician_tony_lewis/
[2] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Cricket New Zealand overnight announced that Indian viewers hoping to watch cricket played in the South Pacific nation will only be able to do so on Amazon Prime, the retail giant’s Netflix clone.
The deal will start in late 2021 and run for six years, a period during which the Indian national men’s’ cricket team will twice tour New Zealand.
Cricket matches featuring India’s national team can literally attract hundreds of millions of viewers. New Zealand’s time zone - seven-and-a-half hours behind India – means matches played there will screen during prime time on the sub-continent.
Which is almost certainly why Amazon has done this deal: it now owns some of the hottest content in India for six years, even if only two of those years will feature Indian teams and the other four will see rather-less-exciting matches between New Zealand and other opponents.
Cricket's average-busting mathematician Tony Lewis pulls up stumps [1]READ MORE
And it’s all behind a paywall that costs $1.75 a month, or $13.50 a year, to climb. And of course signing up for Prime also makes shopping on Amazon cheaper while also allowing the company to learn more about its users and recommend them more stuff to buy. Amazon will clearly hope that many Indians come for the cricket and stay for other services.
Neither Amazon nor Cricket New Zealand was rude enough to reveal the price of the deal, but the rights for India’s imminent tour of Australia are thought to have cost around $100m for a potential 26 days and around 200 hours of live cricket content.
The New Zealand deal is probably worth less, because while its teams punch above their weight they generally feature fewer big stars than Australia. But Cricket New Zealand has nonetheless said it is “delighted and proud” with the deal, and more than pleased to have scored a streaming deal at a time cable and free-to-air broadcasters are struggling to match the sums they paid for sports rights in less-disrupted times. ®
Get our [2]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/03/crickets_averagebusting_mathematician_tony_lewis/
[2] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
"New Zealand’s time zone - seven-and-a-half hours behind India – means matches played there will screen during prime time on the sub-continent."
New Zealand is seven and a half hours *ahead of* India. When it's prime time in India, it's the early hours of tomorrow morning in New Zealand. Even if New Zealand games were pushed until stupidly late at night, in India they would still be mid-afternoon, which is not prime time.
Was free. Now only on prime.
Free to paid = not good for the consumer
But even in india $13.50 a year is about Rs 1000 ie 1% of wages even for a driver or domestic servant that’s almost affordable. A lot of people pay £30 a month for TV here and earn less than £3k/month Ie over 1% here. Yes when you earn $2000 a year you have way less disposable, but a lot of domestic servants kid free food anyway. A friend of mine just moved to India from London to work for the Clinton foundation and earns a UK salary in India