NEW YORK — Amazon Prime Video has a tendency to add marquee sports properties such as the NFL, NBA, and MLB’s New York Yankees. Now they’re going into business with the most prestigious name in golf: The Masters.
Prime Video and Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley will announce on Tuesday that Prime will become a domestic broadcaster of the Masters in April. Prime will complement the long-time coverage provided by CBS Sports and ESPN.
Beginning with the 2026 tournament, Prime Video will stream two additional hours of first- and second-round coverage on Thursday and Friday. Prime will live-stream Masters golf action from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 9, and from 1 to 3 p.m. on Friday, April 10. That will set up ESPN’s coverage from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. CBS will air live coverage from 2-7 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12.
No talent lineup has been revealed yet, but Jay Marine, head of Prime Video for U.S. and Global Sports, indicated Amazon will bring in at least a few fresh announcers to call the action at Augusta National alongside incumbent media partners CBS and ESPN. “My guess is you’ll see some new faces on our broadcast,” Marine said Tuesday at the Front Office Sports TunedIn Summit.
The Masters is annually the first and most-watched of golf’s four major tournaments. Golf fans have clamored for years for better access and coverage of the first and second rounds of the 91-year-old tournament before ESPN begins to air it. The iconic tournament was first shown on TV by CBS in 1956, and coverage was then limited to holes 15 to 18.
Jim Nantz, who’s closely associated with Masters coverage on CBS, called his first Masters in 1986 when Jack Nicklaus won his final major. In 2002, CBS televised all 18 holes of the final round for the first time. In 2008, ESPN picked up live coverage of the first and second rounds.
Marine said Amazon’s discussions with Augusta National were boosted by a shared desire to think of the fan first. “Everyone at Augusta National is patron-obsessed,” he said. “They’re obsessed about the experience, every detail—in person, on-screen—and you see that, and that care comes across.”
But despite the traditions of the Masters, Marine promised broadcast innovations while also “respecting what makes the tournament so special.”
