Surprisingly, Apple and Amazon have struck a deal to bring the Apple TV+ streaming service to Amazon’s Prime Video channels.
The deal will see Apple TV+ join streaming services like Max, Paramount+, AMC+, and Starz as a subscription add-on for Prime Video subscribers. Apple TV+ costs $9.99 per month, and like Prime Video’s other streaming add-ons, users can watch all of their content within the Prime Video app. Apple TV+ will be added later this month.
Prime Video head Mike Hopkins announced the deal Wednesday night at the Bloomberg ScreenTime conference.
“Our two companies have done a lot of deals together and I want to thank Eddie Cue. I know he’s not here tonight, but he and his team did a great job on this deal. We’re excited to move forward with it,” Hopkins said of the deal.
“We want to bring Apple TV+ and our library of award-winning series and movies from the world’s best storytellers to as many viewers as possible,” Eddie Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said in a statement. ” he said. “We’re thrilled that Prime Video is bringing Apple TV+ to our viewers to give them an incredibly wide range of viewing options.”
Why would Apple TV+ want to sign a deal with Prime Video? As Cue pointed out and Hopkins argued, it’s all about scale, and Amazon has a lot of it (like the NFL). thursday night football (The numbers prove it) and Apple TV+ remains a very small streaming player. Hopkins said Prime Video has “hundreds of millions” of users.
“This initiative of making Prime Video accessible to Prime members around the world is a really great platform for other partners to easily access our subscriber base, one-stop shop, easy navigation, one-click subscription. I think there’s only one app,” Hopkins said. “And I think that’s what attracts partners.”
Apple TV+ has series such as: ted lasso, slow horse, the morning show and retirement allowanceas well as movies like wolfs. It is also the worldwide streaming home of Major League Soccer. While Prime Video has terminated similar deals with other streaming services, the move marks a significant departure for Apple, which has made Apple TV+ an important part of its Apple One bundle, alongside products such as Apple Music, Apple News, and Apple Arcade. This will be a major shift in strategy.
Hopkins also touched on a number of other topics during the Screen Time conversation, including the future of the James Bond franchise that Amazon shares with the Broccoli family. When asked about future Bond films, Hopkins said: Let’s take a look. I wish I could announce something there, but I’m not ready for that yet. ”
As for the company’s approach to managing the intellectual property it acquired from MGM, Hopkins argued that a cautious approach is best.
“I think it’s really important that if the kind of IP that exists at MGM exists elsewhere, we need to tread carefully when reconsidering that IP,” he said. “Consumers don’t necessarily just want a remake of something, so if you’re going to do something, you have to do it from a different angle, a different interpretation, and it has to be good for the audience. We believe that it must be done.”
He also likened Prime Video to a “broadcast network on steroids” in terms of the breadth and depth of its content.
“We are Amazon, and we want to be many things to many people. That means we cover a lot of ground. Because like I said, we want to be many things to many people. , because hundreds of millions of consumers around the world access and use our apps, and everyone is different. Everyone has different preferences,” he said. “So if you want to be successful in a business like this, you can’t be so narrow-minded. You actually have to be broad.”
