Amazon Intercepts With NFL Thursday Night Football
In thisMarket Fooleryvideo, Chris Hill andDavid Kretzmanntalk about the latest deal in live-sports programming: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) paid $50 million for the rights to stream Thursday Night Football -- rights that Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) owned last season. But whether the e-commerce giant overpaid or not, it is an important acquisition for Amazon on a number of levels and a notable loss for Twitter, which has been attempting to reposition itself as a live-events platform.
A full transcript follows the video.
10 stocks we like better than AmazonWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*
David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Amazon wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.
Click here to learn about these picks!
*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017
This video was recorded on April 5, 2017.
Chris Hill:Twitterhas lostThursday night NFL games toAmazon,and it's understandable why, because Amazon ponied up five times the amount of money for the Thursday night games that Twitter did a year ago. Amazon is paying $50 million for 10Thursday night NFL games.
David Kretzmann:Which is essentially the same deal that Twitter had last year.
Hill:Right,although they were only paying $10 million for it.
Kretzmann:Yeah, besides that.
Hill:And it's not exclusive, they'llstill be on the broadcast networks. This comes at a time when Amazon shares broke through the $900 barrier and hit another all time high this week. It seems like, whileAmazon is the headline here, in sports, there are games where it's like, did one team win it, or did the other team just lose it?I look at this story and I know the headline is, "Amazon has won the right to stream these games." I look at it as, "No,Twitter is the loser." That, to me, is the headline.
Kretzmann:Especially withJack Dorsey coming on as CEO over the past year and a half. Thecompany is focusing on being the live events platform, and this NFL deal seemed to be a pretty big piece of it. And it's not like Twitter is struggling for cash. I've been critical of the company, I'm a disappointed shareholder, like a lot of people, but they have over $2 billion in net cash. And this seems like the type of thing where you don't want to focus so much on immediate ROI here. So, I'd be curious to see, what was the max price that Twitter went up to and they said, "At this point it's not worth it." It reminds me of theCostcoandAmerican Expressdeal, where Charlie Munger atBerkshire Hathaway... I guess he's vice chairman under Buffett, he basically said comments along the line of, "If you're American Express, you pay a little bit more and you keep that deal. Clearly, that's valuable to your brand and your competitive position." I think, if you're Twitter, you needed the NFL deal far more than Amazon needs it. But, I think it makes sense for Amazon. It beefs up their video platform. I'll be curious to see, because, they will have some time for ads during the game, so I'll be curious to see what that mix of ads looks like. Will they just be promoting Amazon NFL gear? Will they be promoting other Amazon products and services? Or will they open it up to outside advertisers? If I'm Amazon, I think this is a great opportunity to test promoting your own products and services. I would be surprised if that isn't a pretty big focus of theirs.
Hill:Yeah, that was one of my thoughts when I saw the price tag. I thought, "Can they sell $50 millionworth of stuff on 10 consecutiveThursday night this fall?" I think they probably can.
Kretzmann:We'llfind out. And, they'll bring in more Prime memberships. It makes that Prime offering,especially the video aspect. I think more people are waking up to the fact thatAmazon has some quality original shows. I just found this out today, they have apartnership with the NFL already with one of their showswhere they follow an NFL team through the season. Apparently, that's one of their most popular shows. I think they feelpretty good that this will be a hit. They have that data. I think this is agolden opportunity for them to venture into that live TV market andfigure out how they can integrate the Amazon experience with live TV.
Chris Hill owns shares of Amazon. David Kretzmann owns shares of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), Costco Wholesale, and Twitter. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), Costco Wholesale, and Twitter. The Motley Fool recommends American Express. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
