Amazon reportedly spent around $11 billion on TV series, movies and music for its Prime services last year – up by 41% from $7.8 billion in 2019. That figure comes in the online retail giant’s annual report this past Thursday.
The expenditure includes licensing and production costs associated with video and music offered to Amazon’s Prime members, as well as costs associated with digital subscriptions and content the company sells or rents.
The report follows hot on the heels of last month’s announcement that Amazon inked a ten-year deal with the NFL nabbing exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” in 2023 – a pact worth $1.32 billion per year.
Main rival Netflix spent $11.8 billion on streaming video content in 2020, compared with $13.9 billion the year prior due to the coronavirus halting productions for the better part of the year. Netflix however has no music subscription service and so is obviously spending more on video content.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also announced that the company has more than 200 million Prime members worldwide – up from 150 million in January last year. Bezos will relinquish his CEO position later this year, but will remain executive chairman.
The company did not reveal the number of Prime members by country or region, or specific numbers about Prime Video viewership.
Source: Variety