But Mr Bern would not rule out a play for the rights,which are expected to include the 2032 summer games in Brisbane.
“We look at every opportunity that comes to market,” Mr Bern said. “We do have an appetite for additional sporting rights,but what will be our next sports property after swimming? We don’t know yet. It just depends on what the opportunity is,where it falls within our slate and our programming calendar and obviously,economics and how competitive it is.”
Amazon,which is valued at $US1.66 trillion ($2.2 trillion) and makes most of its money from cloud computing and e-commerce,has made a major push into online video streaming over the past decade,including live sport.
It signed its first sports broadcast deal in Australia last February,securing the rights to stream swimming trials for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The two-year exclusive agreement added to Amazon’s international sports streaming slate,which includes the global NFL rights,ATP Tennis,US Open and the English Premier League in Britain.
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The Olympics have typically been loss making for networks in Australia,even if they run in a similar time zone.
Seven paid a reported $200 million in 2014 for the three most recent Olympics. Sources familiar with the terms of the original deal with the IOC,who spoke anonymously due to confidentiality agreements,said Tokyo 2020 was the most expensive of the three Olympic Games acquired (the rights cost about $100 million).