Amazon.com, Inc. Will Stream UFC 222 — No Prime Membership Required

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UFC 222 - Amazon.com, Inc. Will Stream UFC 222 — No Prime Membership Required

Source: UFC Twitter

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be offering UFC’s pay-per-view events beginning March 3. The first fight available will be UFC 222, headlined by Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya.

UFC 222, which will air live at 7:00 PM PT this Saturday, is already available for preorder at $64.99 on Amazon Prime Video, and you don’t need a Prime membership in order to watch.

For comparison, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) is charging $69.99 on top of the price its customers are already paying for cable.

Amazon Streaming UFC 222 Is Another Blow to Cable

While this is important news for UFC fans, it is also important news for AMZN investors and those following the cord-cutting trend in general.

The pay-per-view market isn’t huge. Revenues of $2 billion in the U.S. and $4 billion worldwide are expected in 2018. In 2016, global pay TV revenue totaled $202 billion dollars — 100 times as much. So, at face value, it seems that Amazon doesn’t have much to gain by taking a small slice of the pay-per-view pie.

But it does send a valuable message to people holding onto expensive cable packages: “You’re not missing out by cutting the cord.” And this could have longer-term ramifications.

A 2017 eMarketer report estimated that in the U.S., the number cord-cutters and cord-nevers would grow to 27.1 million and 36.3 million, respectively — nearly 25% of U.S. adults. This rate is expected to continue rising, and accelerating.

And now AMZN is sending the message that it’s okay to accelerate even faster.

Live TV events are one of the reasons to hold onto cable, and now many are being streamed online. Sports in particular are a huge reason to hold onto expensive cable packages, and Amazon knows this. Last year, Amazon started streaming Thursday Night Football.

The first game AMZN hosted saw 2 million viewers of the 8 million total.

With the announcement that Amazon will offer UFC 222 pay-per-view, cable has lost another advantage that it once held over online streaming services.

And it’s running out of advantages.

As of this writing, Regina Borsellino held no positions in the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/02/amazon-amzn-stream-ufc-222-no-prime/.

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