As Amazon's VP of Global Sports Video, Marie Donoghue is the Internet giant's point person for securing and deploying media rights. And, as you might expect, when you represent a company with a $1 trillion (that's "trillion" with a "t") market capitalization, she's accustomed to having sports right holders try to intuit meaning from just about anything she says or writes.
That's because Amazon is something of a Holy Grail for sports properties. With 150 million Prime members world wide and streaming expertise through Prime Video and Twitch, there's broad hope that Amazon can further drive growth in rights fees while simultaneously reaching younger audiences that are cord cutting at an increasing pace.
In her #5Tweets, Donoghue touches on Amazon strategy, approach, and results they've seen from sports investments.
-1-
“We’re not the same as the other services out there. Amazon Prime is a membership service. You get benefits for being a member. Prime Video is one benefit you get for being a member. My job is to figure out how to use live sports to enhance that membership.”
-2-
“Sometimes we pass on rights like the PGA and UEFA. That confuses people. We are not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to sports.”
-3-
"We start with the customer and work backwards. When we have data, we look at it. Sometimes it’s a clear idea of what works. A lot of times, we have to make decisions w/o data. If it’s good for the consumer, we’ll consider it."
-4-
“The first two days of the Premier League matches were the two highest-ever Prime sign-up days in the U.K. for us.”
-5-
“We were surprised by how many fans were delighted by “Sounds of the Game” [game playback without announcers]. It makes sense if you’ve ever gone to a Premier League match — the songs and the chants. We didn’t even promote it, and fans found it on their own.”