Amazon Prime have announced a 12.5% price increase less than two weeks before the new Premier League campaign in which supporters will need to fork out more than £760 a year if they are to watch all of their team’s broadcasted fixtures.
The retail giant, who have exclusive rights to two rounds of fixtures, are raising their prices from mid-September for existing and new subscribers.
In an email sent to subscribers overnight, Amazon said: “As of 15 September 2022, the price of the monthly Prime membership will increase from £7.99 to £8.99, and the price of the annual Prime membership will increase from £79 to £95. The new price will apply to renewals starting 15 September 2022.”
It comes during a cost of living crisis in which researchers estimate more than 1.5m Britons will struggle to pay essential bills.
Sky Sports will continue to show the bulk of league fixtures this season with a subscription to their package costing £25 per month. BT Sport, meanwhile, will show games weekly in addition to all Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League fixtures with existing Sky customers having to add an additional £30 charge to their bill for access.
This season Amazon will stream a midweek round of fixtures in October and the Boxing Day set of games. The rights cost Amazon about £30m per season. The company’s latest accounts say it made a gross profit of $197.5bn in 2021 and this is Prime’s first UK increase in eight years.
In previous seasons they have allowed free trials that enabled fans to stream games without signing up.
Last week it was announced that the provider had secured rights to 20 Champions League games a season from 2024/25, with Prime Video Sport’s managing director Alex Green describing it as “truly momentous” for their growth in sports media.
“Since 2018, we’ve seen millions of Prime members in the UK. enjoy live sport on Prime Video, and it’s that passion and energy that has led us to this exciting next step,” he said.
“We can’t wait to bring fans the headline fixture of European football’s most prestigious competition every Tuesday and we’ll have more details to share about our broadcast in the future.”
In September Prime Video will release The Lord Of The Rings: the Rings Of Power series, which cost an estimated £750m in rights and filming costs.
Search engine analysts said that “cancel Amazon Prime” has skyrocketed by more than 500% since last night’s announcement.
