- GBH Research analyst Daniel Ives sees Amazon (AMZN +0.6%) and Facebook (FB -0.2%) disrupting the live sports market.
- Ives calls the next 12 to 18 months a “pivotal window” for the tech giants to secure professional sports program rights.
- Ives: “We note in 2021, the year when the NFL, MLB and NHL media rights deals mostly end, will be the first major opportunity for Amazon, Facebook and other major tech streaming platforms to potentially bid on some of these rights versus the likes of traditional entrenched media/cable players.”
- Both companies have pushed hard into original content with Facebook willing to spend up to $1B this year and Ives estimating that Amazon could spend over $5B.
- Ives will monitor the Facebook deal to stream 25 MLB games to gauge whether streaming platforms can disrupt this market.
- The analyst calls Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (GOOG +0.4%) and Apple (AAPL +0.8%) “wild cards” in the live sports battle and says Snap (SNAP -0.8%) and Twitter (TWTR -1.1%) are “tangentially in the mix.”
- Previously: Facebook in exclusive deal to stream 25 MLB games (March 9)
- Now read: Dear Amazon Investors: Enjoy Your 3% Future Annual Returns
Original article