Amazon ramped up content spending to $16.6B in 2022, including $7B on originals
Amazon detailed the costs of its content business during its amazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2023/Amazon.com-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-Results/">fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, citing that its content expenses jumped to $16.6 billion in 2022, a 28% increase from $13 billion in 2021.
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While the company didn't break down exactly how much it invests in each title, it's rings-1235246136/">reported that Amazon is spending more than $1 billion annually for its NFL streaming rights. Plus, the first season of "The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power," the most-watched Amazon original series worldwide, cost over $500 million.
Amazon didn't report subscriber numbers for its streaming business. However, Olsavsky boasted during the earnings call that its Prime Video content is a "strong driver of Prime member engagement and new Prime member acquisition," Olsavsky said.
For instance, "The Rings of Power" was viewed by over 100 million global viewers with more than 24 billion minutes streamed. The company added that, during its launch window, "The Lord of the Rings" series helped drive more Prime sign-ups worldwide than any previous Prime Video content.
Amazon also touted that Thursday Night Football reached the youngest median age audience of any NFL broadcast package since 2013, and viewership among fans ages 18 to 34 years old increased by 11% compared to the 2021 season.
The company claimed the TNF games had an average audience of 11.3 million viewers. The first exclusive TNF game on Prime Video had 15.3 million viewers. Before the 2022 season began, Amazon expected to reach about 12.5 million viewers per week.
Amazon Prime Video's 'Thursday Night Football' starts strong with 15.3 million viewers
Other original content added to the streamer in 2022 includes "My Policeman" starring Harry Styles, the third season of "Jack Ryan" and the Western drama "The English," among others.
Amazon is also benefiting from its 2022 acquisition of MGM for $8.5 billion. The company noted that "Wednesday," the MGM-produced series on Netflix, premiered at No. 1 on Nielsen's weekly streaming charts and earned two Golden Globe nominations. In December, "Wednesday" became the second most popular English-language series on Netflix, surpassing 1.02 billion total hours viewed in just three weeks since its streaming release. Over 150 million households watched the show.
Prime members in the U.S. also saw the return of HBO Max as a Prime Video Channel offering, giving customers access to approximately 15,000 hours of premium content.
HBO Max comes back to Prime Video Channels
