Published 17:35 IST, November 10th 2020
Amazon Prime Video signs historic deal to live stream all New Zealand matches in India
Amazon Prime Video purchased the exclusive rights to stream the Black Caps and New Zealand-based White Ferns across India in a 6-year long deal.
Amazon Prime Video entered the live sports streaming market in India with the purchase of exclusive rights to stream the Black Caps and New Zealand-based White Ferns across the sub-continent. The 6-year long deal will begin from early next year. It will provide live coverage of all the Black Cap matches. Amazon will hold the exclusive streaming rights to broadcast matches starting from the 2021-22 season until the 2027-28 season.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) CEO David White spoke on NZC’s ambitions of and speaks on the impact of landing such a mega deal. He also went on to say how the global sports rights market has been affected due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Amazon New Zealand cricket deal reactions
“This partnership with Amazon Prime Video is massive for NZC. We’re delighted and proud to be teaming up with such a famous and successful brand. As we’ve said before, the future of live sport is streaming and in Amazon Prime Video we have a partner right at the coalface of the industry; innovative, go-ahead and well-known for putting fans and subscribers first," White said.
“One of NZC’s key goals is to extend our teams’ global reach and to build closer relationships around the world and, in terms of that particular objective, we don’t think we could be in better hands.
“India has always been an important market for us; no other country follows cricket like India, so it’s exciting to be announcing this agreement with India’s leading streamer. I want to thank the Amazon Prime Video team for their goodwill during the negotiations, and also acknowledge our longstanding media rights advisors, Pitch International - for their help in concluding the deal," the New Zealand Cricket CEO added.
Gaurav Gandhi, Amazon Prime Video Director and Country General Manager (India) also commented on the deal. Gandhi shared how Amazon Prime Video is slowly becoming a world class platform of entertainment all across India.
“We are excited to add India’s most loved game – cricket, to our content selection for our Prime Video customers, and we are thrilled to work with NZC on this endeavour.
“They have a strong, passionate and much-loved cricket team, and the cricketing rivalry between the two countries has been fantastic. We are happy to make this collaboration with NZC our first live sport offering in India, and are confident our Prime members will be delighted with this initiative," Gandhi was quoted as saying in an official press release.
Trent Boult to start in the New Zealand cricket schedule 2020-21
The Dream11 IPL 2020 has proved to a major success in live OTT sports streaming across India. Amazon Prime Video has taken a giant leap in to counter it's competitors. The addition of sports with Amazon Original Series to regional blockbusters has surely made them an OTT platform to watch out for.
The Amazon New Zealand Cricket deal seems to be a great addition for all the Prime membership holders across India. It will allow the viewers to watch the matches on various streaming devices like smart TVs, mobile devices, without shelling out extra money.
Indian viewers were in danger of being starved yet again of watching matches in New Zealand (apart from when India tours the country), thanks to Star India, the previous media rights owner, not renewing its contract which expired this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, that has been averted, with this deal proving that cricket continues to sell the most in India amongst sports, continuing to be a lucrative option.
Fans will also get to see players such as Trent Boult, Kane Williamson and other Dream11 IPL 2020 stars from New Zealand much more from now.
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Image Source: New Zealand Cricket Twitter
Updated 17:36 IST, November 10th 2020