November 13, 2017

Just as we learnt of Manchester City’s 21% increase in turnover, it was also reported that the club had signed a deal with Amazon Prime. The deal for the behind the scenes TV series, following Man City through the 2017/2018 season, is reportedly worth more than £10 million.

The TV series will be shown on Amazon Prime’s video service, which offers a variety of television shows and films, via the Internet, to Prime subscribers. The show might be Amazon’s first dabble with English football but it is no stranger to the sports entertainment format. “All Or Nothing“, now in its second season, follows a similar format with two NFL teams, the Arizona Cardinals and The Los Angeles Rams and Amazon has produced original entertainment content with both Rugby and Formula 1 as the focus.

It’s reported that the English Premier League (EPL) has consented to the series, but the big question, is whether this deal with Man City will be Amazon’s only dealing with the EPL this year. Amazon has not only expanded their original entertainment series but has also recently added Thursday night NFL games and ATP tennis finals to their live streaming roster.

Will this behind the scenes series, designed to offer fans a glimpse into the club, its coach, Pep Guardiola and the lives of the players just seek to increase Prime subscribers, just as The Grand Tour was designed to do? Or will this act as a tool to entice football fans onto the Prime video service, normalising the watching of football content on Amazon, in anticipation of long-form content being added for the 2018/19 season?