Marie Donoghue, who parlayed a stint at ESPN into a job helping Amazon break into the U.S. sports-media business, is leaving the company, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Amazon declined to comment.
Donoghue had been hired to oversee Prime Video’s global sports strategy, identifying and evaluating new sports opportunities, and led efforts to acquire the rights to “Thursday Night Football,” which has helped the tech giant gain traction among consumers and sports leagues over the last few years. Amazon has tried to weave new elements into the traditional game-watching process, offering the chance to call up stats and replays at the click of a button, as well as watch a group of “alterna-casts” aimed at different audience niches.
“We have already devoted a lot of time to thinking about how to use new technologies to drive viewing experiences,” Donoghue told Variety in 2021, in an interview. “We think this will be a great opportunity to continue to do that. The opportunities are endless with this relationship.”
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Since that time, “Thursday Night Football” has become more of a sports-week staple. Though there are doubts that the company has been able to wring any more profits out of the weekly game than Fox, NBC or CBS before it, sports-industry observers believe Amazon sees sports as a way to turbocharge its e-commerce business, which may offset some of the costs of sports rights. Amazon also has not had to invest as much as its linear rivals in production, contracting with NBC Sports for its Thursday broadcast and enlisting announcers such as Kirk Herbstreit and Charissa Thompson who have concurrent deals with other plays such as ESPN or Fox Sports.
During Donoghue’s tenure Amazon also navigated its way into agreements with the WNBA and some contracts with UEFA Champions League.
In recent years, Donoghue seemed to have ceded some authority to Jay Marine, a veteran Amazon executive who was placed atop the sports division in 2022. Donoghue still managed rights negotiations and production strategy, but she no longer had a direct line to senior Amazon management.
Before joining Amazon, Donoghue spent more than 18 years at ESPN, where she rose to the role of executive vice president of global business and content strategy. She led ESPN’s business affairs, and supervised such entities as ESPN Films and FiveThirtyEight.
