International Sports

Manchester United headlines Amazon's English Premier League soccer debut

Key Points
  • Manchester United against Tottenham is the lead fixture for Amazon’s first Premier League soccer offering
  • Amazon joins Sky Sports and BT Sport as rightsholders for Premier League soccer coverage for the latest three-year cycle.
  • Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said to shareholders in 2018 “Prime Video continues to drive Prime member adoption and retention.”
Paul Pogba of Manchester United warms up prior to the Premier League match between Manchester United and Southampton at Old Trafford on August 19, 2016 in Manchester, England.
Michael Regan | Getty Images

Manchester United's match up against Tottenham is among the standout matches that make up Amazon's first foray into Premier League soccer from next season.

The full list of Premier League fixtures for the new 2019/20 season have been announced Thursday, and for the first time two full rounds of matches will all be shown live in the UK on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon's coverage includes 20 games spread across two rounds will take place during the early December midweek games and Boxing Day, which is traditionally a busy time in the English soccer calendar.

Elsewhere on offer for Prime members in the UK between December 3rd & 5th will be the chance to watch European Champions Liverpool at home to local rivals Everton in the first Merseyside derby of the season at Anfield. Losing Champions League finalists Tottenham Hotspur will go to Old Trafford to face Manchester United, where last season Spurs ran out 3-0 winners.

Existing Amazon Prime customers will be able to access these Premier League fixtures for free, while new customers will be able to join Amazon Prime for £7.99 ($10) per month, or £79 for the year. However, Amazon still currently offer a free 30-day trial before the need to pay any fee.

Amazon won the rights to show Premier League matches from this season when the latest round of TV broadcast packages was announced last year. It joins Sky Sports and BT Sport as rights-holders of top-division live soccer games in the UK and will have exclusive rights for the matches it shows.

However, Amazon's 20 live matches only make up a small percentage of the 180 live matches per season shared between itself and Sky Sports and BT.

This season will see the latest cycle of Premier League television rights begin, which runs up until 2022. Last year, Sky and BT paid a combined £4.46 billion, or £9.3 million per match for those 160 games each season.