Prime Video Announces Deal with Premier Boxing Champions for PPVs, Docuseries, More
Prime Video is adding another live sport to its arsenal, and fans won’t have to subscribe to Prime to watch pay-per-view fights through the streamer.
Just when Amazon had the media world buzzing about its desire to land rights to some NBA playoff games, the company has pulled in a new sport to its streaming lineup. The e-commerce leviathan has announced a new multiyear agreement with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) that will see pay-per-view events and much more head to Prime Video starting next year.
- Premier Boxing Champions has over 150 active fighters spread across multiple weight classes.
- The first PBC pay-per-view on Prime Video is anticipated in March 2024.
- The deal will also bring docuseries, live weigh-ins, on-demand events and more to Prime Video’s archives.
Will PBC Boxing Matches Be Free for Prime Video Subscribers?
The deal between PBC and Prime Video provides for distribution of its live boxing cards, including the most-anticipated pay-per-view events of the year. A Prime Video subscription won’t be enough to watch these pay-per-views, which will likely run $84.99 or more each. The good news is, users can purchase these PPV events without needing a Prime membership.
The announcement of the deal promised Prime Video would also offer a series of events “showcasing top matchups among boxing’s current and rising stars,” but it was not immediately clear if these would be free to Prime Video subscribers, or if they too would be pay-per-view events.
In addition to live cards, the deal will provide for original docuseries with behind-the-scenes footage, live weigh-ins, on-demand recording of previous events, highlights of the top fights, and much more. PBC has some of the world’s top boxers, including Canelo Alvarez, David Benavidez, Gervonta Davis, and Ryan Garcia in a stable of over 150 active fighters in various weight classes. Its events were formerly distributed by Showtime.
Amazon Continues to Build Live Sports Inventory
Amazon is turning into quite a repository for live sports. It’s clearly being discerning with its money, as its willingness to walk away from English Premier League soccer rights in the United Kingdom makes clear. But the company is also fulfilling Prime Video vice president Jay Marine’s promise that it would be “aggressive” in pursuing more live sports.
Prime Video streamed over 20 WNBA contests in the 2023 season, and as mentioned above has definite interest in the NBA. The streamer will also get 27 National Women's Soccer League games per season when that league’s new rights deal goes into effect in 2024. That’s before even mentioning its biggest sports asset: exclusive rights to the national broadcast of the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football,” which reside with Amazon until 2033.
It’s possible that the increase in inventory will allow Amazon to revive talks of launching a separate sports streaming service. Late last year, word began to circulate that Amazon wanted to launch a new app dedicated to live sports, but there have been essentially no updates on such a proposal since. Now that the amount of live sports on Amazon is increasing, perhaps talk of a new streaming app will rise anew.
On the other hand, Amazon has a big change at Prime Video to get through before it can focus fully on launching a new streaming platform. Prime Video’s current tier will transition from ad-free to ad-supported in 2024, and the streamer will launch a new, more costly ad-free tier simultaneously.
There’s a good chance that Amazon will use that ad revenue to continue investing in live sports, at least partially. Prime Video has made several new additions in that regard in 2023, and before the close of the year it managed to add one more: Premier Boxing Champions.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.