Sky facing EPL battle with Amazon and Google

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Sky's dominance of EPL TV coverage is under serious threat as the world's biggest digital media companies prepare to muscle in and take over.

Amazon recently bought the rights to tennis' ATP World Tour in a £50million deal, and there is genuine feeling that the company is now set to move for the English Premier League when the next TV rights auction roll around.

Those rights, for three-year packages beginning with the 2019-2020 season, are set to be up for offer later this year.

And with the Premier League increasingly tempting the likes of Amazon , Google and Facebook, the financial bubble in which England's top clubs are engulfed shows little sign of bursting just yet.

Sky are currently paying £11million per match, but they cannot match the financial muscle of Amazon, who purchased Whole Foods for $13.7bn in August and are in an arms race with Apple and Google to become the world's first $1trillion company.

Amazon Prime has become a major winner since the streaming service was unveiled, and continues to battle Netflix to become the most dominant service on the planet. Offering Premier League football live, as well as other PL-related shows in a similar manner to NFL Game Pass, is seen as a potentially major and decisive difference-maker - much like it was for Sky in the early '90s.

With a cash pile few can match, Amazon have been making public noises about the moves they're making and "starting to bring live sports to our Prime members all over the world."

Google are also viewed as potential bidders for the English territory rights, having shown interest before, and are increasingly well placed to buy rights and show them via YouTube.

However, there are suggestions that Google are eyeing not just the English rights, but are actively seeking a deal with the Premier League to buy ALL global packages, completely dominating the landscape.

The Premier League are understood to have little interest in one package encompassing all rights, and are keen to continue doing it by territory, meaning if Google did purchase certain rights, matches would be shown in one territory while being geo-blocked elsewhere.

Yet, the Premier League are well aware that traditional broadcasters are losing subscribers - in 2016, ESPN were losing up to 10,000 US subscribers every day - and multi-platform distribution is likely to be the way forward. As Ofcom made clear in its recent study on changing viewing habits, 63 per cent said they used BBC iPlayer regularly. Certainly, Richard Scudamore has been saying as much.

"We envisage anybody really being able to come along and bid for those rights," he told the Times last month. "We would need distribution criteria and to make sure it was readily available across platforms and everything else but as long as it was widely available and distributed properly we wouldn't rule them out."

For Scudamore, there is also however the threat of something of a hostile takeover, with Google or Amazon purchasing all rights across the planet, strong-arming their way into a position where they in effect have total control over the Premier League, or, should they wish, Amazon.

In terms of the English rights, Sky remain confident of continuing their 25-plus year association with the Premier League. But the likelihood that they have to fork out an increased amount again, as more potential suitors show their hand, has substantially increased.

Should those suitors go all in, Sky, despite their relationship with the league, may well be left facing the beginning of the end.

BT, who own two of the seven packages, could also be squeezed out, while the Premier League have intensified their crackdown on the illegal streaming of matches in recent months, against free Kodi and Mobdro apps.

The High Court has passed a "blocking order" in favour of the organisation that will force internet service providers to shut down any server being used to broadcast a game.

“The protection of our copyright, and the investment made by our broadcast partners, is hugely important to the Premier League and the future health of English football," declared Kevin Plumb, the Premier League's director of legal services, when the announcement was made back in July.

The order covers the 2017-18 season and has been described as a "game-changer" in the fight against online piracy, as bosses at the organisation work vehemently to protect rights currently levelled at £5.1 billion.

Netflix meanwhile have contacted a number of clubs, including Liverpool and Chelsea , about possible pre-season documentaries.

Both La Liga and Major League Soccer have already made the move into legal online streaming, having both paired with Facebook.

MLS announced a deal back in March for at least 22 games from the 2017 regular season to be broadcast on the social media channel.

That meant matches produced with mobile devices in mind - featuring Facebook-specific commentators and features allowing viewers to engage directly with the commentary team during games - as MLS bid to drive up their social media presence and engagement with supporters, as the league aims to continue its growth.

Facebook have now also made a bid to show cricket's Indian Premier League.

That followed Twitter , who in 2016 took to live streaming the Thursday night game in NFL, only for Amazon themselves to take over those duties for the season which began two weeks ago.

Upon that announcement, Jeff Blackburn, Senior Vice President, Business Development & Entertainment at Amazon declared: "Our focus is on bringing customers the best premium video programming, when and how they want to watch it. Streaming Thursday Night Football on Prime Video is a great step for us toward that vision, and offers tremendous new value for Prime members around the world."

Certainly, that digital revolution shows no sign of stopping. The Premier League will either join up - whether through choice or through force - or risk being left behind.