The streaming world is agog with the juicy bit of news regarding Amazon CEO Andy Jassy asking top Prime Video executives for a detailed breakdown of the expenditure into Prime Video’s biggest shows. For those who don’t know, Andy Jassy, the current CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon, has asked for detailed analyses of the budget of Prime Video’s most expensive shows. He wants to understand what studio executives have splurged the eye-popping sums on.
Andy Jassy’s diktat came in the wake of Prime Video’s ‘Citadel’ debacle. The Priyanka Chopra Jonas – Richard Madden show has been heaped with the ignominy of being a flop, after earning the distinction of being the most expensive show ever. The series cost a whopping $250 million to make, a steep increase from the $100-120 million budget, proposed in the beginning. Despite the massive budget, Citadel failed to bring in the numbers. It did not feature on the Nielsen Top Ten Streaming List even once, in all of its weeks of streaming.
It’s also common knowledge that besides Citadel, Prime Video’s other much-hyped show ‘Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power’ is also one of the most expensive shows of all time. The show cost upwards of $400 million to make. It too failed to draw in viewers in substantial numbers.
Along with these, other recent Prime Video original series that have proved to be quite expensive include Daisy Jones And The Six, The Power, Dead Ringers, The Peripheral, among others. Daisy Jones & the Six, The Power, Dead Ringers and The Peripheral all cost more than $100 million to produce, but again, all four failed to make it to Nielsen’s list of the 10 most-watched streaming programs in the US.
The Jen Salke-led Prime Video has consistently been spending more and more on content in recent years. This year, it spent $7 billion on its streaming content, as against $5 billion from the year before. Not even entertainment giant HBO spends so much on content, despite having some of the most prestigious shows in its repertoire – Succession, Game Of Thrones, House Of The Dragon, and more.
Andy Jassy pulling up Prime Video executives for the blatant over-spending at the platform is therefore totally justified and well-deserved. As streaming wars intensify, and become even more chaotic, it is quite obvious that the market has reached a bit of a saturation point. In such a scenario, there has to be some accountability in the budgeting and spending on big shows.
Also, given the fickle nature of streaming audiences, there can never be one clear leader for long in the streaming market. Disney Plus, Max and Paramount head honchos have understood this paradox, and are actively engaged in cost-cutting strategies in their respective organisations.
Hopefully, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy pulling up his studio executives may just help them control the mindless spending spree happening at Prime Video, something that has been hitting headlines with startling regularity in recent times.
A well-deserved rap on the knuckles too, we say!