London (AFP)

By broadcasting the ten Premier League matches of the famous Boxing Day on December 26 on Amazon Prime, the online business giant intends to gently revolutionize the television landscape of English football.

The video on demand (VOD) platform had created the sensation by being the first GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) to gain a foothold in the very expensive but potentially very lucrative English championship.

For 90 million pounds (105 million euros), he had won the broadcasting rights to 20 matches per year, for three years.

The first round of matches, for the 15th day from December 3 to 5, was as awaited by the defenders of the concept, who hoped mountains and wonders, as by the protesters watching for the slightest misstep.

Both camps were at their expense, the broadcast having known no glitch and Amazon Prime having played security in its cover so as not to immediately upset an audience fed with the immutable formulas of the Sky Sports / BT Sport duopoly.

Some innovative touches still got attention.

The broadcast of Manchester City - Burnley in 4K ultra-high definition, the possibility of accessing statistics or seeing all the goals of other matches without missing anything from the game followed or even the "as at the stadium" mode which spares commentators sometimes invasive logorrheas, could quickly become the new standards for retransmission of matches.

- Expected growth driver -

Only the delay of certain kick-offs at 8:15 p.m. local time in the middle of the week caused the start of an anti-Amazon growl among supporters.

It will be even worse for the second round which is looming on the occasion of Boxing Day, where the 10 matches of the 19th day will be spread from 12:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on December 26, the day when footballers are traditionally called on the field but where the public transport enjoys a holiday.

But the lessons learned from year 1 after Amazon Prime will be numerous and capital.

Already for the VOD platform which had 9 million subscribers in the United Kingdom and which hopes to get closer to or even exceed the leader Netflix and its 11.3 million, thanks to this operation.

Amazon Prime did not give a figure on the number of new subscribers in early December attracted by the free trial month. But the main question will be how much will pay from January 7.99 pounds (9.30 euros) per month.

If the model takes over, the Premier League hopes to see other players (Netflix, Google, Facebook) go into battle and represent a growth relay for TV rights.

- Towards 100% of matches broadcast? -

During the last award, in 2018, for the first time in 14 years the amount of the new contract was lower than the old one and the broadcasters are almost at the end of what they can get from football fans.

The financial company eToro and the analysis firm KPMG Football Benchmark had revealed at the beginning of November that the price of the TV subscriptions to follow the Premier League had exploded by 40% since 2014/2015 whereas the price of the tickets in the stadiums had grabbed 1% (for a subscriber supporter who makes at least 5 trips).

This test balloon at a bargain price - the cost per match of the lot acquired by Amazon Prime was 50% cheaper than that of the main lots won by Sky and BT - also carries in germ a cultural revolution for English football: because of the embargo on the broadcasting of matches from Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

A measure made to protect crowds in stadiums, but today far too easily circumvented by pirating streaming, since these matches are broadcast legally in other countries.

VOD players will probably come en masse only if everything is open to distribution, especially given the price of the "entry ticket" for the main lots.

© 2019 AFP