Augusta National's Prime Play
The Masters adds four hours of weekday coverage on Amazon's streaming platform one year after creating exclusive(ish) weekend windows on Paramount+.
Assuming one has ample time and the streaming subscriptions to watch every hour of Masters coverage, the 2026 viewing sequence will go something like this:
Thursday and Friday: Amazon Prime from 1-3 p.m., ESPN from 3-7:30 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: Paramount+ from 12-2 p.m., CBS from 2-7 p.m.
A viewer can also watch the terrific Masters.com feeds covering Amen Corner, 15/16, and Featured Groups. Those options remain via the official apps or website, where the primary broadcasts listed above have also streamed.
This makes the addition of Amazon Prime Video to Masters coverage a surprise on several fronts.
Given longtime complaints about the lack of network-style opening round coverage until 3 p.m. ET, few Masters fans will complain about Tuesday’s announcement adding two hours each for the first and second rounds. With Prime Video reaching 130 million U.S. homes and 200 million globally, it’s not an obscure broadcaster. Nor has it skimped on its NFL coverage efforts.
Still, adding Prime windows means the Masters has a third primary television partner with no direct ties to ESPN or CBS. Timing-wise, Tuesday’s announcement coincides with last year’s September 17th reveal of CBS and Paramount+ adding more weekend hours. But Paramount+ was already streaming some CBS coverage as part of the (then) Viacom family. Prime’s arrival means an entirely new broadcast partner for an organization that long prided itself on keeping things elegantly simple for viewers.
Throw in NBC and Golf Channel handing coverage of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and Drive, Chip, and Putt, and the club is now partnering with most of the world’s major media corporations or their weirdly-named spinoffs.
In adding windows on Paramount+ before CBS weekend coverage and Amazon Prime prior to ESPN’s opening round coverage, the tournament has taken a fairly simple two-network option and expanded it to three. Then again, if all of the Prime/Paramount+/CBS coverage is provided on Masters.com—the word exclusive was not used in the announcement—the tournament’s second-screen option remains the cordcutters’ first choice for and makes most of this is moot for streamers.
The confusion of it all aligns neatly with the current chaos in sports viewership and media rights. But The Masters is beloved, in part, because of how the tournament has set the standard for shrewdly navigating and pushing the media landscape to do better. So what does Amazon bring besides a big check the resources to help Augusta National grow the game?