SFR announced at the start of the week that it had reached an agreement with Prime Video to distribute the Ligue 1 Pass in its Sport offers.
SFR subscribers will be able to choose a pack including one or more channels. The RMC Sport offer, Amazon Prime and the Ligue 1 Pass will, for example, be accessible for 20 euros per month, with a one-year commitment.
“SFR is once again showing its desire to offer the most attractive content to its subscribers. With the distribution of Amazon Prime and the Ligue 1 Pass on Prime Video, RMC Sport, beIN SPORTS, SFR confirms its attachment to sport and meets the expectations of its customers who wish to be able to choose the most suitable offers “reacted in a statement Grégory Rabuel, CEO of Altice France and SFR.
The Ligue 1 Pass has until now been marketed by Amazon for its Prime subscribers, at an additional cost of 12.99 euros per month or 99 euros per year.
Amazon is inflating its prices
This announcement comes at a time when Amazon announces a price increase on all of its subscriptions in France. The increase in prices is significant: the annual subscription will increase from 49 euros to 69.90 euros at the start of the school year in September, and the monthly subscription will increase from 5.99 to 6.99 euros.
In a letter addressed to its subscribers, reported by NextInpact, the e-commerce giant specifies that “this change is linked to the increase in the operating costs of Prime in France”.
In August 2021, Amazon Prime Video achieved an average audience of 9.5 million unique visitors, marking an increase of 18% compared to July 2021, according to figures provided by theAudiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority (Arcom) in a study on sports audiovisual content. Unlike previous years when the months of July and August had been quite similar, the Ligue 1 Pass seems to have boosted Amazon Prime Video’s overall audience, Arcom says.
Offensive on sports
Amazon wants its share of the cake in the broadcasting of sports competitions in France. Since 2020, the American giant has entered the French market by buying rights to broadcast Roland-Garros matches as well as Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.
With sport, Amazon “strengthens its Prime Video service of attractive programs and services for the benefit of its global Amazon Prime service offer” underlines Arcom.
However, the regulator also observes that there is still a lack of data to monitor the consumption of offers of audiovisual sports content online. For example, Amazon has only “communicated very little on the audiences achieved during the broadcast of the Roland-Garros matches during the 2021 edition, the same with regard to its number of subscribers to the Pass League 1 “. Amazon merely indicated that several Ligue 1 matches had reached an audience “of at least one million Internet users”, adds Arcom.
According to a study by Harris Interactive and NPA Conseil dating from December 2021, the Ligue 1 Pass would have nearly 1.8 million subscribers. “These data are difficult to compare with the subscriber base of pay channels, but nevertheless demonstrate a certain enthusiasm for an offer that offers premium sports content” analyzes the regulator in its document.
Beyond France, Amazon is also involved in football in particular, with the English national championship, or even tennis. As for the other global subscription video-on-demand services, Arcom indicates that they are “limited at this stage to offering documentaries or series around sport”. Apple has recently shown interest in sports rights and is said to be in negotiations to acquire exclusive rights to broadcast baseball matches in the United States instead of the historic broadcaster ESPN.