In another move signaling its intention to become a player in live sports television, Amazon Tuesday announced that it has secured exclusive streaming rights to deliver all Seattle Sounders FC matches not on national TV to Amazon Prime Video members residing in the state of Washington.
The Sounders are one of Major League Soccer's (MLS) more successful franchise, making the playoffs every season since their 2007 expansion season, and winning the league title last year.
The team will still be regionally exclusive on analog TV via several local Fox affiliates. The first Amazon Prime Video stream of a Sounders game will take place Aug. 26, when Seattle visits the Los Angeles Galaxy. The agreement is for three years, running through the 2022 MLS season.
Sounders FC’s regional broadcast territory extends throughout the entirety of Washington State, including the traditional Seattle-Tacoma-Everett television DMA and key population centers like Spokane, Yakima, Tri-Cities and Vancouver, Washington.
It’s the second major deal Amazon has signed with a sports team. The company had a deal lined up through the New York Yankees’ regional sports network partner, Yes Network, but plans to stream Yankees games this year fell apart when Major League Baseball moved to a pandemic-related condensed season.
“Sounders FC is a fundamental part of our culture here in the Pacific Northwest, and as a club they have always been at the forefront of innovation in professional sports,” said Marie Donoghue, VP of global sports video at Amazon, in a statement. “We share this common vision for innovation at Prime Video, and are committed to delighting fans and enhancing the value of a Prime membership through sports, and we believe this deal accomplishes just that.”
