Amazon is in talks to start streaming sports on Prime
The Wall Street Journal reports that the online retail giant has been in talks with a number of major American sports organisations, as well as traditional media networks that show sports, over acquiring rights to broadcast games online live.
Amazon has apparently been discussing some kind of "premium" sports package as part of its Prime subscription service, the WSJ's unnamed sources said.
Organisations Amazon has been in talks with include the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball, ESPN, and others.
Through Prime, Amazon already offers subscribers on-demand movies and TV shows, including exclusive original content like newly launched motoring show The Grand Tour, starring Jeremy Clarkson. But broadening this to sports could give it a key advantage over rival Netflix, which has so far refused to touch live sports.
We've heard reports that Amazon is interested in sports before. Back in September, Bloomberg reported that the company was chasing the rights for everything from the French Open tennis championship to professional rugby, with a focus on sports with "global appeal."
Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
If the company does manage to acquire the rights to sufficiently high-profile sports and leagues, it could help it assert superiority over other on-demand video streaming services - and would also present an unprecedented threat to traditional TV and cable companies that also show live sports.