Amazon Prime Video Is Masters’ Latest Swing At New Audiences
The Masters Tournament is one of the most revered events in U.S. sports, in part because of how the event — which takes place at Augusta National Golf Club — is presented on TV.
For years, long-time partners CBS and ESPN have promoted and covered the event with overwhelming reverence, helping elevate its status within the PGA’s four major tournaments to dizzying heights. The Masters’ unique rules around ads, with just four minutes allowed per hour during the tournament, only serve to fuel that popularity even more as a “pure” event minus the commercial trappings of other televised sporting events.
However, they also pose interesting challenges for both media partners and brands. Which is how we get to this week’s interesting news: Amazon Prime Video will be joining CBS and ESPN as Masters partners in 2026, to provide two additional hours of coverage during the first and second rounds of the event.
The announcement has a lot of moving parts.
Amazon, already possessing a large live sports footprint with the NFL, NBA, WNBA and NWSL in the fold domestically, adds yet another marquee property in a quest to make itself even more unavoidable for sports fans.
One could guess that while Amazon will have to adhere to many of the existing TV guidelines spelled out by Augusta National, there’s also a reason the club is making this deal with the tech giant instead of existing partners who have their own respective streaming services.
While The Masters could be described as “traditional” in the most measured sense, the event has also been willing to try new things over the years, in an effort to connect with younger and/or more digitally-minded fans.
In 2023, they worked with StreamLayer to power enhancements to The Masters app — including watch parties, polls, trivia and more. Earlier this spring, Mercedes-Benz integrated The Masters app into its in-vehicle entertainment system for select models, too.
Working with Amazon, we’ll see what new innovations come about. But it would seem likely (and almost the entire point of the partnership) that Prime Vision enhancements are part of the selling point. Another angle, conceivably, would be a new take on ads during the event, since ads and consumer shopping data are arguably the largest reasons why these sports/Amazon partnerships make sense.
The Masters’ hurdles around ads will make that more challenging to fully activate around, however.
In April 2025, Mercedes-Benz, IBM, Bank of America and AT&T were the only advertisers during live tournament action, and spent an estimated $32.3 million across all four rounds, according to data from iSpot.
While there’s consumer shopping data integrations there for Amazon, it’s not on the level that the NFL and NBA particularly provide, where it’s far easier to trace retail, tech and QSR advertiser appearances to shopping behaviors. That could widen the aperture for brand appearances (even if just on Amazon Prime Video), and/or force Amazon to get more creative around ad integrations.
Given Amazon’s track record on both fronts, it’s worthwhile to bet on them figuring this one out to maximize the value for everyone involved.
