According to Deadline, Amazon recently announced a lucrative deal with content provider AMC. The deal awards Amazon with “first window rights” to exclusive AMC content for Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. The deal covers 28 regions where Amazon Prime Video is currently available, including Italy, India, Japan, and Australia.
As reported by the India Times, Amazon Vice President Brad Beale commented on the announcement, stating, “This is another step in our efforts to extend the selection of premium TV shows available to Prime Video members worldwide.” Beale also identified AMC’s new show The Terror as the first of AMC’s content to hit the service.
Other shows have yet to be announced, including whether or whether or not the deal will include future seasons of AMC’s hit show The Walking Dead. However, the exclusive deal highlights Amazon’s continued efforts to secure more licensing agreements. The company is attempting to work with major content providers in its effort to outpace Netflix in the burgeoning cord-cutting market.
Amazon launched its Prime Video service internationally in 2016. The company started its streaming service in 2006 as Amazon Unbox, changing the name to Instant Video in 2011 after merging Instant Video into its Prime membership for U.S. customers. Between 2011 and present, Amazon has expanded its content library size from 5,000 on-demand videos to over 11,000 movies and TV shows now being included with a Prime subscription.
According to Variety, Amazon plans to increase its content spending in 2018 (the company spent over $4 billion in 2017). Some of that spending will go toward three new original sci-fi shows. Variety notes that those shows will be adaptations of the award-winning novels Ringworld, Snow Crash and Lazarus. The official titles of these shows have yet to be announced.
Amazon also spent $250 million to acquire the rights to a Lord of the Rings TV adaptation.
Sam Cook is a full-time content strategist by day, a part-time freelance content writer since 2015. In another life, he was a high school English teacher for nearly a decade. Based in sunny New Orleans, he writes long-form educational content on technology, including Insurtech, Fintech, HRtech, and content streaming. He loves whittling down complex ideas within these areas that make decisions easier for buyers. When he’s not reading books with his son Miles and playing video games with the family, you can find him immersed in his growing collection of Euro-style board games.
