Amazon Prime's new series embeds camera with our national rugby team through their 2017 season.

A little bit of pressure may have come off Sky Television as it battles to maintain its grip over sports rights.

Rugby fans won't necessarily have to sign up to Amazon Prime Video to watch Amazon's documentary series on the All Blacks, which will first screen at the beginning of June.

Sky Television strategy director George McFarlane said Sky had struck an "exclusive" deal with Amazon to also show the fly-on-the-wall series, All or Nothing: New Zealand All Blacks, on Sky Sport.

SUPPLIED "All or Nothing: New Zealand All Blacks" will comprise six episodes rather than the originally-reported eight.

It is understood that will be later in the year, a couple of months after it first appears on Amazon Prime Video.

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The series itself may not be a huge draw card for Sky.

Multiple sources have said remedial work was needed on the documentary because of the different expectations of its producers and NZ Rugby.

The series will compromise six episodes, whereas most of the sports documentaries commissioned by Amazon – such as its award-winning series on the Arizona Cardinals American football team and another on English Premier League club Manchester City – are eight episodes.

But when Amazon first announced it was making a series on the All Blacks last year it intensified speculation that the US firm might also try to wrestle rugby rights off Sky.

Kiwi broker Forsyth Barr forecast in July that Amazon might bid for the rights to All Blacks matches and Super Rugby and stream them on Amazon Prime Video, as and when Amazon began building fulfillment centres in New Zealand.

McFarlane said the fact Amazon had offered the documentary rights to Sky might suggest Amazon was not planning to compete for local sports rights with "guns blazing".

"They have got so much cash they can do whatever they want. They do behave pretty rationally and New Zealand is a pretty small market though."

Sky has nevertheless been rocked by a growing belief that its stranglehold over key sports could slip faster than anyone might have expected a few years ago.

Last month, Spark confirmed that it had outbid Sky for the rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and United States outside broadcaster NEP entered the New Zealand market offering more options for potential rivals to Sky.

NEP said it could film sports for Sky or for rival broadcasters, or assist sporting bodies that wanted to cut out the middleman and stream sports matches direct to the public.

Amazon Prime Video is currently only being offered as a standalone service in New Zealand, costing US$5.99 (NZ$8.60) a month.

But, overseas, Amazon has used it as a sweetener to encourage shoppers to sign up to Amazon Prime, which offers "free" shipping on individual purchases through Amazon in return for a monthly or annual fee.