By Mark Harris

Copyright outkick

Amazon Prime Video has landed the Masters. Well, at least four hours of it. Beginning with the 2026 edition of golf’s first major championship on the calendar, Prime Video will be broadcasting first and second round coverage on Thursday and Friday from 1:00 – 3:00 PM ET. The additional two hours each day will lead into ESPN’s coverage from 3:00 – 7:30 PM ET for the opening two rounds. CBS will still be home to third and second round coverage on Saturday and Sunday. “Working alongside Amazon in this capacity is an exciting opportunity for the Masters Tournament and its fans,” Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, said in a statement. “We are proud of our longstanding partnerships with CBS Sports and ESPN, who have set the highest standard for broadcast coverage of the Masters. The addition of Amazon will only further our abilities to expand and enhance how the Tournament is presented and enjoyed.” Why The Masters Joining Prime Video Is Surprising In today’s day and age, practically every sport, league, or team has jumped out of the traditional TV broadcasting world to some degree and into the streaming world. Cord-cutting and dollars to be had have made pivoting to streaming, from a business perspective, relatively straightforward in sports. Nothing about the viewing experience is straightforward, but that’s a story for another day. The Masters have long felt like the whale that the hands of the streaming players would never capture, and for good reason. Augusta National is the definition of exclusive, has an abundance of riches, and, until now, has kept everything about the Masters completely in-house. There are no brands present at the Masters. From food, beverages, and memorabilia, you name it, everything is owned and operated by and for Augusta National Golf Club. Until this announcement about Prime Video, early bonus coverage of the tournament was available for free on the Masters’ official website. In recent years, that same coverage, which featured a few featured groups and featured holes, was also made available on Paramount+, CBS’s streaming platform. With ESPN not beginning its Thursday-Friday broadcast until 3:00 PM ET, viewers were left only able to watch a handful of different players selected in featured group coverage from the morning wave of players, or see players go through Amen Corner and play a few additional holes selected on the stream. With streaming taking over the sports world in recent years, practically every golf and Masters fan has complained about the lack of a more traditional broadcast for early round coverage on Thursday and Friday when the tournament field is full. Some version of the question ‘Why can’t the Masters simply show more players early on during the first two rounds?’ has been asked by everyone at this point. After all, Augusta National has the resources, and it already streams every shot of the select featured groups, so why not just offer a traditional broadcast throughout Thursday and Friday? Because money talks, of course. Amazon Prime wasn’t just handed four hours of Masters coverage; it paid what has to be an exorbitant amount of money. Augusta National and the Masters accepting money for four hours of additional coverage is just a basic and positive business deal from their perspective on paper. Off paper, when you think of the mystique, exclusivity, and non-advertising world that the Masters has forever operated in, the tournament going elsewhere with a piece of its media is downright stunning.