The rise of streaming services – especially regarding their cryptic viewership numbers and production costs – has changed how success is measured when it comes to television. With broadcast, cable, and even some premium networks, transparency has led to some (fairly) easy correlations when it comes to cost and ratings, with a little alchemy thrown in for critical acclaim and “because the network president likes it.” But in the streaming world, it’s all conjecture. Making things even more complicated is Amazon, who is the only streaming service that shares its home with a massive online retailer. And as Amazon CEOJeff Bezossaid at a 2016 technology conference, “When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes."
That quote and a whole host of fascinating information about Amazon’s business strategy when it comes to Prime Video is part of an exclusive report fromReuters, released today. In it, we learned that internal documents Reuters was able to acquire “compare metrics that have never been reported for 19 shows exclusive to Amazon: their cost, their viewership and the number of people they helped lure to Prime.”
Now for the reason why you clicked on this article: Amazon’s mega-spending for itsLord of the Ringsprequel TV series. According to Reuters, the company paid $250 million for the story rights alone, and coupled with production and marketing costs, that overall figure could rise to $500 million.
This kind of insane inflation is something that has been beleaguering other networks as well. In aGame of ThronesWorld, HBO has been pressured to keep expanding the cost of its juggernaut while also commissioning big series likeWestworld, and high-cost-cast series likeBig Little LiesSeason 2 (HBO drama chiefFrancesca Orsiused some prettystrong language on the matter). And with Netflix and Apple seemingly ready to spend untold amounts to acquire big names and build giant productions, it puts a lot of pressure on other networks to keep up.
Although … does it? A ton of money does not equal quality. There have been some big, expensive, high-profile flops lately – think of HBO’sVinyland Netflix’sMarco PoloorThe Get Down.Throwing money at a series doesn’t equal quality, just like with film. And while Amazon’s gamble that itsLord of the Ringsseries will be big enough just through name recognition to bring more people to its platform, it will have to sell alotof shoes to be worthwhile to Amazon’s bottomline.
