Amazon Prime Video and Swimming Australia In Historic Streaming Splash Down Under
In a first for swimming, USA-based streaming giant, Amazon Prime Video will broadcast the 2021 Australian Olympic Swimming Trials live from Adelaide in June in the countdown to the Tokyo Games.
Amazon Prime Video and Swimming Australia has unveiled details of an exclusive, two-year live broadcast streaming deal with its camera crews already on site Down Under as Australia’s best swimmers re-unite on the Gold Coast.
The partnership coincides with over 60 of the Australian Dolphins arriving for a week long National Event Camp at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Bond University and Palm Beach Aquatic Centre and also the long-awaited details emerging out of Tokyo of the IOC and Tokyo 2021 Playbook for this year’s Games.
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And in a sporting trend, Swimming Australia’s announcement comes hot on the heels of Rugby Australia revealing its partnership with Stan Sport to broadcast the Wallabies Rugby Union matches.
The Swimming Australia deal will see a global distribution of the Australian Swimming Championship events on Prime Video at no additional cost to Prime members.
The Australian Swimming Championships has appeared on every free-to-air network in Australia from its earliest appearances on the ABC to the Nine, Seven and Ten Networks as well as Fox Sports.
Now the Dolphins, one of the world’s most famous swimming teams and pooldeck brand, will attract a global television streaming audience.
Live streaming highlights will include the 2021 Australian Swimming Trials in the lead up to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and the qualifying events for the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Australia is renowned for producing world-class competitive swimmers, and swimming is one of the country’s most popular sports.
This partnership will ensure that Australians and a global audience won’t miss any of the action as Australia’s elite swimmers compete in qualifying for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo later this year, and other global sporting events in 2022.
Swimming Australia President and two-time Olympic 1500m freestyle champion Kieren Perkins knows how important live television is to Australia’s premier Olympic sport.
Perkins career coincided with the sport taking off in the 1990s – en-route to the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
It was an era in Australian sport where in 1996 Perkins, Daniel Kowalski and Glen Housman became household names with the 1500m freestyle at the Olympic Trials in Sydney, televised live in prime time on a Saturday night – the event reaching the highest ratings of any show on Australian television that week.
Perkins went on to win his second Olympic gold in Atlanta in a swim for the ages from lane eight – another massive ratings winner for Channel Seven in what remains one of the greatest victories in Australian Olympic history.
Perkins, who will address the Australian media with Olympic gold medallist Bronte Campbell on the Gold Coast (at 2pm Australian Eastern Time) later today said: “To be able to partner our sport with one of the biggest streaming services in the world provides us with fantastic opportunities to deliver premium live swimming content to Australians and a global Prime Video audience.
“Swimming is ingrained in our culture, and we know that millions of fans support the Australian Dolphins Swim Team when they compete.
“Also, our current generation of swimmers, including those who have an eye on competing in Paris 2024 and beyond, will love being able to live stream the sport wherever they are.”
It will take the sport of swimming and the Dolphins stars – led by Olympic champions Kyle Chalmers and Mack Horton and current world champion Ariarne Titmus – to greater heights.
And it will be a huge boost to the profiles of these athletes who missed the boat in 2019 when for for the first time in recent memory the Fina World Championships were not televised live on Australian television sets – with the Australians producing dominant performances through rising star Titmus and outstanding victories in four Olympic relay events.
The rivalries between Australia and the USA in the 1990s and 2000s that lifted the status of swimming between the two countries with a series of Duel In The Pool events – is set to take off again.
The expected showdowns between Titmus and the USA’s greatest ever freestyler in Katie Ledecky; Chalmers and American super swimmer Caeleb Dressel and the building head-to-head clashes between world beating backstroke kids Aussie pair Kaylee McKeown, Minna Atherton and US super-teen Regan Smith will have the Prime Video producers eager to re-invent the Duel In The Pool concept.
“This is a great result for our community, including swimmers, clubs, State associations and fans,” added Mitch Larkin from the Australian Dolphins.
“Having our events streamed live on Amazon Prime Video will inspire the next generation of athletes who will be able to watch the best swimmers in the country compete.”
And it’s the fans that the Amazon team want on board.
Marie Donoghue, Vice President of Global Sports Video at Amazon made it clear when she said: “We know live sport attracts passionate fan bases from around the world, many of whom are already Prime members.
“And we are focused on giving our customers access to the best selection of content possible, including the ability to watch live sport when and how they want to watch it.
“Streaming the upcoming Swimming Australia championship events on Prime Video is a great step toward achieving that global vision, and offers tremendous new value for Prime members in Australia and beyond.”
Hushidar Kharas, Head of Prime Video Australia said: “We’re excited to partner with Swimming Australia to bring live swimming events to Australian and global fans exclusively on Amazon Prime Video at no extra cost to Prime members.“Sport is an intrinsic part of Australian’s lives, and Amazon Prime Video has already established itself as the home of captivating Australian sports docu-series including The Test and the upcoming AFL docu-series Making Their Mark.
“The launch of live sports streaming on Prime Video in Australia is a natural progression for us, and we are proud to be partnering with Swimming Australia to bring the iconic and beloved sport to Prime Video customers.”
The first event available to stream on Amazon Prime Video will be the Australian Swimming Trials in Adelaide between 12-17 June.
Key events in the swimming event calendar before this will be available to stream on Swimming Australia’s digital platform SwimTV, and will be announced at a later date.
ABOUT Amazon Prime Video: Or simply Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon.com, Inc., offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon’s Prime subscription.
