Football reins supreme in the United States. Soccer is the still widely considered the most popular sport in the world. But in 2023, cricket dominated the minds of international audiences.
That was shown through the most viewed Wikipedia pages of 2023, where four of the top 10 pages were related to cricket. Amazon (AMZN) -) is clearly paying attention to what attracts international eyeballs as Prime Video has struck a deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to become the exclusive broadcaster of cricket in Australia, the two sides announced on Monday.
The deal is four years from 2024 to 2027, and it gives Prime Video Australia exclusive rights to stream all matches of ICC cricket men's and women's events which includes Cricket World Cups and T20 World Cups.
The 2023 Men's Cricket World Cup set several viewership and attendance records — while also being the third-most viewed page on English Wikipedia for the year. Australia won the World Cup, beating host country India in the final.
Amazon Prime's foray into sports has been swift and broad in scope. In the US, the company is spending a billion a year to broadcast NFL's "Thursday Night Football," and this year aired the league's first ever Black Friday game. On top of that, it also has deals to broadcast select New York Yankees games and WNBA games as well.
The company could also be announcing its first boxing deal with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) this week.
Internationally, Prime has deals to broadcast the UEFA Champions League in Germany and Italy, and has already delved into cricket by streaming New Zealand cricket in India.
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