Amazon is Launching Live Sports Talk Network

For years ESPN and Fox Sports have been the kings of daytime sports talk. You turn on ESPN most weekdays and you’re not seeing live sports, but talk shows breaking down everything happening in the world of sports. Now Amazon wants in on that very lucrative market, reports Cord Cutters News.

Recently Amazon launched a live fee of Sports Talk every week day from 8am to 8pm Eastern. This includes shows like Bonjour Sports Talk, The Cari Champion Show, Game Breakers, and more.

Cari Champion

Amazon is hoping to pull away some ESPN viewership. Earlier in 2022 ESPN’s morning show First Take set a record with 918,000 people watching the show live back in January.

This kind of live programming drives high advertising rates as it is less likely to be DVR’d, meaning the commercials are more likely to be seen. Increasingly advertisers are looking to sports as a way to get their message out and not have it skipped over.

Sports currently drive some of the largest viewership numbers seen right now. An average NFL game right now draws in 15.7 million viewers. The recent Michigan Ohio State game in November had an average of 17 million viewers. That compares to NCIS that averaged 6.55 million viewers or Young Sheldon with just over 7 million viewers. The problem with those is many people DVR it and watch it later skipping the commercials.

The question now is will Amazon be able to attract a large enough audience to support its new daytime sports talk network?

Amazon is not alone in this effort as Roku has also pushed into live programming about sports most famously with the Rich Eisen show, now streaming for free on weekdays exclusively on The Roku Channel.

You can watch Amazon’s new Sports Talk Network every weekday on their website HERE.