Amazon Prime Video on Tuesday announced its debut into live sports in India by acquiring the India territory rights for the New Zealand Cricket through 2025-2026. With this announcement, Amazon Prime Video becomes the first Indian streaming service to secure exclusive live cricket rights from a major cricketing board.

The multi-year deal between Amazon and the New Zealand Cricket Board will give Prime Video the right to stream all international cricket matches to be played in New Zealand for both men’s and women’s cricket, across ODI, T20 and Tests formats starting late 2021. The deal also includes Team India’s tour of New Zealand in early 2022, and a second tour, the dates for which will be announced later. The rights for 2020-2021 season starting later this month is intended to be syndicated by Amazon.

Gaurav Gandhi, Director & Country General Manager, Amazon Prime Video said the team is looking forward to bringing India’s favourite game to the streamer. Over the last few years Amazon Prime Video has become the go-to destination for world-class entertainment in India be it our Amazon Original Series or the biggest blockbuster movies across languages, Gandhi said in a statement.

… We are thrilled to work with New Zealand Cricket on this endeavor as 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 New Zealand Cricket our first live sport offering in India, and are confident that our Prime members will be delighted with this initiative, he added. David White, Chief Executive New Zealand Cricket, 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 important for viewership of NZC; no other country follows cricket like India, so it’s exciting to be announcing this agreement with India’s leading streamer.

The Indian territory New Zealand Cricket rights package is the latest in Prime Video’s growing line-up of live sports around the world including Thursday Night Football, the Premier League, ATP Tour Events, WTA, the US Open (tennis), UEFA Champions League, Autumn Nations Cup (rugby), and the Seattle Sounders FC. Fans can also subscribe to streaming services such as Eurosport, MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, and PGA TOUR LIVE through Prime Video Channels.

This in addition to a selection of popular docuseries for sports fans, including The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team, which follows the Australian men’s cricket team during the 2018/2019 season, and Emmy-winning Amazon Original All or Nothing among others.

First Published:Nov 10, 2020 11:33 AM IST