The most famous tennis tournament in the world will be broadcast on Internet TV in Germany by Prime Video from next year.
Amazon says it has secured the media rights for Wimbledon for the first time and is showing the Grand Slam tournament in London on its paid online portal. The contract runs until 2027 and also applies to Austria. So far, the lawn tournament has been shown in this country on the pay-TV channel Sky.
“We are proud to offer all Prime members exclusive coverage of the Championships at no additional cost to their membership,” Amazon executive Alex Green said in a statement. The Prime subscription required for this currently costs 8.99 euros per month or 89.90 euros per year.
The moderation and commenting team has not yet been determined and will be announced in the coming months, according to Amazon. So far, Prime Video only offers Champions League football games as live sport.
Sky is losing an important TV right after the pay-TV provider recently increased its tennis offering by purchasing the license for the WTA women’s tournaments. “At Wimbledon we have decided not to extend the rights,” said a Sky spokesman. “But with the extension of the ATP rights and the new acquisition of the WTA rights, we are more than ever the number 1 tennis broadcaster in Germany.” Sky will offer more than 80 tournaments and over 4,000 games next year.
Most recently, the online broadcaster Sportdeutschland-TV surprisingly secured the rights for the US Open and will broadcast the Grand Slam tournament in New York from August 28th to September 10th for a fee. The rights for the French Open and the Australian Open in this country are held by the US company Discovery, which broadcasts the two Grand Slam tournaments on its specialty channel Eurosport, among others.
EU Commission suffers defeat before ECJ over Amazon taxes
The EU Commission has suffered a final defeat in the dispute over Luxembourg tax regulations for Amazon. On Thursday in Luxembourg, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected an appeal by the EU Commission against an earlier ruling by the EU court. The EU court had previously ruled that the Brussels authority had wrongly viewed the tax rulings for Amazon as illegal aid. Amazon welcomed the ruling. This confirms that Amazon has followed all applicable laws and has not received any preferential treatment, said a company spokesman.
In 2003, Amazon proposed a corporate tax regime for two subsidiaries based there to the Luxembourg authorities. Luxembourg approved this. However, the EU Commission found in 2017 that this regulation was aid incompatible with the internal market.
However, the EU court ruled in 2021: The EU Commission had not proven well enough that Amazon had actually unfairly paid less taxes as a result of the regulation. The judges said at the time that Luxembourg did not grant the subsidiary any selective advantage.
The EU Commission defended itself against this before the highest court, the ECJ. But the judges now rejected this. The EU Commission used an incorrect reference system when assessing the regulation. The lower court therefore rightly declared the EU Commission’s decision to be null and void, said the judges. According to the company, the regulation is no longer in force and expired in 2014.
In NASDAQ trading, Amazon shares lost 0.95 percent to $147.42.
BERLIN/LUXEMBOURG (dpa-AFX)
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