Amazon

IHS Markit: US SVOD market could grow by 53m subs by 2023

New direct-to-consumer services from Disney, Apple, Warner Media and NBCUniversal have the potential to grow the US SVOD market by 53 million subscriptions by 2023. This is according to IHS Markit research, which claims that such growth would amount to a 25% increase in subscribers and would generate up to US$3.6 billion in incremental revenue […]

Amazon to increase video spend in 2019

Amazon’s chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, said he expects Prime Video spend to “increase even further in 2019” but would not put a price on its programming budget. Olsavsky made the comment on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, responding to a question asking for an update on the company’s ambitions in the video space. […]

Amazon ‘may scale back’ Channels

Amazon may be looking to scale back its à la carte Channels offering as new competitors enter the space, according to The Information. Amazon is scaling back its ambition to expand the service as Apple, Roku and Facebook all look to add third party content on their platforms, according to the news service. The tech […]

Discovery hires former Amazon exec as direct-to-consumer CTO

Discovery has appointed Amazon Marketplace’s former vice-president of technology, Avi Saxena, to the newly created role of chief technology officer for direct-to-consumer. Saxena will oversee the technology systems and global platforms that will serve all of Discovery’s direct-to-consumer products in the US and internationally – including MotorTrend, Eurosport Player and GolfTV. He will also lead Discovery’s […]

Euskaltel adds Amazon Prime Video, Orange speculation mounts

Spanish regional cable operator Euskaltel has become the first operator in the country to integrate the Amazon Prime Video service into its set-tops. The Amazon service will be available to Euskaltel subscribers equipped with Android TV boxes. The move will make Amazon Prime originals such as Six Dreams, The Grand Tour, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, […]

Amazon launches AVOD channel with IMDb

Amazon has launched Freedive, an ad-supported streaming channel featuring movies and TV shows, with the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The AVOD will be available in the US, beginning today, on the IMDb website and on all Amazon Fire TV devices. Freedive TV customers will see the new IMDb Freedive icon in the “Your Apps & […]

Vodafone Spain to offer Amazon Prime free for one year

Vodafone España is to give subscribers a year’s free subscription to Amazon Prime ahead of integrating Prime Video with its TV offering. Vodafone One customers and customers of Vodafone’s Red mobile plans will qualify for one year’s free subscription to Amazon Prime, valued at €36. Vodafone said that its customers would be able to enjoy […]

Amazon reveals most-binged Prime series of 2018

Amazon has revealed that Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and Homecoming are its two most-binged Prime Original series of the year on a worldwide basis. Announcing its ‘Best of Prime 2018’ stats, the e-retail giant said that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was the most recognised Prime series of the year after it picked up eight Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series. In […]

BBC R&D launches new interactive drama for Amazon Alexa

BBC Research and Development has launched a new interactive drama for Amazon Alexa, based on English novelist BS Johnson’s experimental 1969 work The Unfortunates. The drama is a reworked version of a BBC Radio 3 play starring Martin Freeman and listeners can access it for free by asking Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to ‘enable The Unfortunates’. It […]

Amazon wins first Children’s BAFTA

Produced by Amazon Studios and Bix Pix Entertainment for Amazon Prime Video, Tumble Leaf follows a blue fox named Fig and his caterpillar friends as they go on adventures to learn about science. The show was created by Kelli Bixler and Drew Hodges. Tumble Leaf bested Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins and Vampirina as well as Amazon Prime Video’s The Stinky And Dirty Show. […]