Amazon In Talks With AFL Over New Documentary Series

According to new reports, Amazon is looking to increase its Australian viewer base by partnering with the AFL to create new content on its Amazon Prime Video OTT service.

Football industry sources have confirmed to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald that Amazon is purchasing the rights for a series of football club documentaries, to be produced by Jam TV, a television production company owned by McGuire Media, which is led by Eddie McGuire, president of leading AFL club Collingwood.

However, the A$10m deal is set to go ahead without Collingwood, who have reportedly declined to be involved in the documentaries.

Amazon is said to want six clubs involved in the project and those that have been shortlisted include Sydney, Richmond, Carlton, West Coast, Gold Coast, GWS, Port Adelaide and Geelong.

The series will see six people from each club interviewed over the course of an entire season: the senior coach, the president, the CEO, and three players; a senior player, a player in the middle of their career and a player at the beginning of their career.

Amazon has already done something similar in cricket, after filming the Australian cricket team during the dramatic 2019 recent Ashes tour and turning it into a documentary.

Collingwood’s documentary last year (Side by Side) and Melbourne’s this year (To Hell and Back) have both been well received by fans and have rated strongly on digital platforms.

Last year, AFL executives including chief executive Gillon McLachlan met tech companies in the US.