Amazon wins UK rights for US Open Tennis

Amazon is understood to have snapped up the UK TV rights to the US Open tennis tournament, in a move likely to cause further speculation that it is a potential competitor in the upcoming Premier League rights auction.

Today, Discovery-owned Eurosport and the United States Tennis Association announced a five-year deal to continue to broadcast the US Open across Europe until 2022. Conspicuously, the deal excludes the TV rights in the UK and Ireland, which Eurosport has traditionally held and sub-licensed to Sky.

Amazon is understood to have struck a five-year deal for the US Open in the UK and Ireland, which has previously been shown by Sky and Eurosport in the UK. Amazon is estimated to have paid about $40m (£30m) for the rights, although this has not been confirmed nor has their been any official announcement..

Securing the rights to one of the four grand slams adds to Amazon’s £50m, five-year deal for the UK rights to the ATP World Tour, for which it outbid Sky.

With Amazon buying up more and more sports rights, this could mean Sky and BT Sport will have to pay more for Premier League rights. Analysts estimate that Sky could be forced to pay an extra £600m annually to retain the lion’s share of Premier League matches, a total of £6bn for the next three-year deal.