Observed Signal · Oct 15, 2025 · Partnership · Source: State of Streaming · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Amazon Adds Masters Early-Round Coverage on Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video will add two hours of live early-round coverage of The Masters beginning in 2026, streaming Thursday and Friday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET and feeding directly into ESPN’s traditional broadcast. The extra hours raise total live television coverage for the tournament to 27 hours — about a 50% increase from 2024. The move is part of Amazon’s broader live-sports strategy and follows mixed 2025 viewership, when final rounds scored strong ratings while early-round viewing on ESPN declined. The announcement also notes Amazon’s continued investment in sports-related original programming.
Expands live-streaming inventory and distribution for a marquee sports property, affecting where advertisers can buy live sports impressions and reflecting Amazon’s growing role in sports rights and streaming.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Amazon Prime Video will stream The Masters from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday beginning with the 2026 tournament.
- The new weekday hours increase total live television coverage of The Masters to 27 hours, a 50% increase from 2024.
- Prime Video’s early-round streaming will lead directly into ESPN’s traditional broadcast for the tournament.
- In 2025, early-round viewership on ESPN fell nearly 30% year-over-year while final-round ratings hit their highest level in seven years.
- Amazon is expanding its sports strategy beyond live rights into original sports documentaries (examples cited: Kelce, Coach Prime).
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Amazon Prime to Fill Masters' Weekday Viewership Gap
Augusta National granted Amazon Prime Video a two-hour live window (1–3 p.m. ET) on the first two days of the Masters to address a near‑30% year‑over‑year drop in Thursday/Friday early-round viewership. The move increases total live broadcast hours to 27 — a 50% rise over 2024 — and extends the tournament across linear partners (CBS, ESPN) and streaming (Prime Video). Rory McIlroy’s 2025 playoff win generated major audience interest (CBS averaged 12.71 million viewers, peaking at 19.54 million) and high streaming demand (Paramount+’s most‑streamed golf event), which Amazon will amplify with a McIlroy documentary launching March 30. For advertisers, the split between linear and streaming creates different audience compositions, measurement frameworks, and buying conversations — presenting opportunities for shoppable activations and cross‑ecosystem campaign stitching.
Prime Video’s Wimbledon Coverage Faces World Cup Competition
Prime Video will broadcast Wimbledon starting June 29 for the third consecutive year and plans large live coverage — over 300 matches across up to eight courts plus a daily on-site studio show. Prime Video acknowledges the FIFA World Cup will draw massive attention and plans scheduling, partnerships and product features to compete for German audiences, including collaborations with Kicker and the podcast Gemischtes Hack. New broadcast features include a wide rollout of a Multi‑View option (up to three courts simultaneously), live statistics and optional stadium sound. Prime Video also adjusted personnel: Jonas Friedrich moves from the commentary booth to studio moderator, and the expert roster adds Angelique Kerber, Tommy Haas and Patrik Kühnen. Prime expects strong viewership if German players, notably Alexander Zverev, progress deep into the tournament.
Amazon Adds Prime Video Live Sports to AGF Measurement
AGF Videoforschung will include Prime Video’s event livestreams in its standardized audience reporting, extending an existing measurement of Prime Video films and series that began at the end of 2025. The change means Prime Video’s live sports — starting with Wimbledon at the end of June 2026 and becoming especially relevant for the Champions League season in autumn — will appear in AGF’s weekly program‑brand reports and monthly most‑streamed single‑show rankings when they reach sufficient view counts. AGF says the data integration uses an existing server‑to‑server integration and will follow AGF quality and transparency standards. Kerstin Niederauer‑Kopf (AGF) and Nils Gräf (Amazon Ads Deutschland) commented on the move’s role in improving market transparency for advertisers.
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