Let’s return in time slightly bit to the spring of 2022: Amazon Prime Video, one of many world’s energy gamers in streaming media, secured unique rights to the NFL‘s Thursday Night time Soccer bundle a yr earlier. This was fairly the large splash in a altering media panorama.
Beforehand, Amazon Prime Video simulcast video games on the Thursday evening bundle when the video games have been aired on linear tv over FOX Sports activities and NFL Community. The unique relationship with Amazon carries a hefty price ticket: $1 billion (USD) yearly over an 11-year window.
In so doing, Amazon grew to become the primary premium streamer to hold a collection of NFL contests. This deal despatched a transparent message: How viewers devour content material has been altering and is altering, seemingly by the minute. The floodgates have been opening as much as keep.
ONE Championship Indicators North American Streaming Cope with Prime in ’22
A number of months earlier than the unique cope with the NFL was to start, Amazon Prime Video made an effort to bolster its sports activities portfolio. This time, the platform turned its consideration to aggressive violence. In April of 2022, Amazon and ONE Championship got here to phrases on an unique media deal protecting its subscription base in america and Canada.
Amazon is bringing One Championship mixed-martial-arts fights to Prime Video because it pushes deeper into reside sports activities https://t.co/b7twHokBcC
— Bloomberg (@enterprise) April 27, 2022
Efficient in August of that yr, ONE would current reside occasions as soon as a month on Fridays throughout primetime, dubbed ONE on Prime Video. On the time, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong was excited concerning the association.
“Because the world’s largest martial arts group, we consider our collaboration with Prime Video will enable us to succeed in a wider North American viewers that’s hungry for an genuine and differentiated product that you just can’t get with every other group,” Sityodtong stated. “We look ahead to showcasing absolutely the biggest martial artists on the planet, proper right here within the ONE Championship Circle and on Prime Video.”
MMA took heart stage within the preliminary ONE on Prime Video foremost occasions. That first Friday evening on Prime, Aug. 26, 2022, featured a rematch between Demetrious Johnson and Adriano Moraes for the ONE Flyweight Championship, with the previous rising victorious (fourth-round knockout: flying knee.)
Timeslot Nice for North American Followers
In comparison with ONE Championship’s earlier United States relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TNT Sports activities, the present pact with Amazon is a lot better for US-based viewers of the promotion. When TNT aired ONE occasions in April of 2021, they ran because the lead-out program for AEW Dynamite on Wednesday evenings at 10 pm ET.
Whereas watching fight sports activities at any time of the day or evening can be a welcome concept for anybody, Wednesday nights is a reasonably powerful promote, notably for these individuals who have day jobs. People who work the everyday 9:00 to five:00 shift must rise up fairly early within the morning to prepare for one more day on the job.
Sacrificing sleep, even when just for slightly bit on a weeknight, would have made for a difficult Thursday on the workplace. With the Amazon deal, those that go to work from 9:00 to five:00 don’t have to fret about something provided that these reveals occur on Fridays and the week is finished by the point the cardboard begins.
Full Gamut of Fight Disciplines on Show
Whereas MMA is featured throughout ONE Championship occasions, it’s solely a part of the promotion’s equation. A graphic displayed on Prime Video Sports activities’ homepage says all of it about ONE Championship:
“Greater than MMA,” the graphic’s caption reads. “Friday battle nights. Each month.”
You’ll be served a four-course meal once you pull up a chair to look at ONE’s occasions. Apart from MMA, you’ve received kickboxing, Muay-Thai, and submission-only grappling to look at. Take the Sept. 6 ONE 168 from Ball Area in Denver, for instance:
On an evening the place John Lineker will compete in Muay-Thai for the primary time versus Asa Ten Pow, the ONE Light-weight Submission Grappling Championship is at stake within the co-main occasion when Kade Ruotolo battles present flyweight grappling titleholder Mikey Musumeci. That’s instantly adopted up by the principle occasion and one other champ vs. champ battle in Muay-Thai between Jonathan Haggerty and incumbent flyweight kickboxing titleholder Superlek for the previous’s bantamweight title.
Amazon’s Sports activities Inventory Solely Rising From Right here
Within the occasion that you simply’ve simply now woken up from a coma, Amazon’s sports activities properties have grown in current months and it’s a reasonably large get. With the NBA’s present TV offers set to run out after the upcoming season, Prime Video secured partial media rights to the league efficient in 2025.
In complete, Amazon Prime will air 66 video games yearly through the common yr, together with postseason play and alternating convention finals with ESPN/ABC. When you didn’t have Amazon Prime Video earlier than, ONE Championship, the NFL, and the NBA are greater than cause sufficient to get it now.
The place else are you able to get an NFL and an NBA recreation on Black Friday sooner or later?
Remaining Ideas
As somebody who loves to look at fight sports activities over the weekend, watching ONE on Amazon is time well-spent on a Friday evening. Most individuals might select to exit on Friday nights, however these reveals maintain you glued to your seat from the opening bell of the primary battle all the best way to the ultimate photographs of the world after the principle occasion.
There’s no denying it: ONE Championship’s relationship with Amazon is a knockout for all events concerned. Right here’s hoping that it thrives for years to return.
