Over the past few years, Amazon Prime has shifted its acquisition strategy from one favouring multi-market deals to one that is more inclined to favour acquisitions of titles for individual markets only. Where once Amazon may have engaged with a Paramount to ensure an acquired title like ‘Picard’ was a defacto Original in all markets outside the US and Canada, Show Tracker reveals that now the vast majority of acquisitions from Amazon are on a single market basis.
2023 saw four different titles sold as multi-market deals in the first window, with two of these having close ties to the service. ‘Three Pines’, an Amazon Prime commission in the US distributed by Sony, came to Sweden and Netherlands in January after the distributor initially supplied five others with the limited series in December 2022. In other markets the Amazon Original went instead to third-parties, such as Germany where it premiered on Joyn or Latin America where it premiered on Max. ‘Last Light’ meanwhile, the Peacock co-production with Stan (Australia), MBC (MENA) and Viaplay (Nordics) was distributed by Amazon’s own distribution arm, so found its way onto the service in eight markets.
The other two came from Lionsgate. ‘Swimming with Sharks’, commissioned for The Roku Channel, was sold by the distributor in two markets to Amazon while Peacock Original ‘The Continental: From the World of John Wick’ was sold as an Amazon Original around the world, one of the few global acquisitions seen for some time.
To supplement these multi-market deals Amazon therefore has engaged in individual market acquisitions in the first and second window. However, rather than adopting a set strategy that attempts to be applied to all markets globally, Amazon is selective in which markets it engages in these types of acquisitions.
This includes markets like South Africa, where Amazon acquired five series in a market typically dominated by Multichoice in the first window; India where Amazon has become increasingly active in recent years; and the US where it has taken series from the likes of BBC Studios (‘Defending the Guilty’ and ‘Summer of Rockets’), All3Media (‘Steeltown Murders’) and Fifth Season (‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?’).
US and UK content performs differently in non English countries, depending on the tastes of its market’s viewers. Some markets like Germany have audiences excited to see this sort of content while others such as Italy perhaps favour more local content. As Amazon produces a huge amount of US content itself, it may feel less inclined to acquire in markets where local content is more popular with its subscribers and instead focus their spending on acquiring local foreign language series alongside producing their own.
Competitively speaking, Amazon remains one of the top 10 buyers of scripted series around the world where Netflix has since dropped off. While the multi-market distribution deal is certainly within reach for some distributors, Amazon’s presumed preference for single market deals opens up many opportunities for distributors to engage with a buyer that has a high budget. Local broadcast buyers in these markets where Amazon are more active will have to be wary of the potential to be outbid on the TV shows they would like to see come to their service.
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