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Amazon ramped up content spending to $16.6B in 2022, including $7B on originals

Amazon detailed the costs of its content business during its 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.
According to Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, around $7 billion of that figure went toward Amazon Originals, live sports programming and licensed third-party video content included with Prime. In 2021, Amazon spent $5 billion on those three areas of content, for comparison.
While the company didn’t break down exactly how much it invests in each title, it’s 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 more than $500 million.
Streaming services know by now that original content is the key to standing out amongst rivals and reducing churn. Amazon is likely boosting its content investments to better compete with Disney, Netflix and HBO Max. Disney spends approximately $33 billion on content, while both Netflix and HBO Max spend a reported $18 billion. (Note that a portion of Disney’s figure goes toward sports rights — around $11 billion.) Paramount+ also plans to increase streaming content spending to $6 billion by 2024, it recently said.
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.”
For instance, “The Rings of Power” was viewed by more than 100 million global viewers with over 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. More than 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

Amazon ramped up content spending to $16.6B in 2022, including $7B on originals by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
Amazon ramped up content spending to $16.6B in 2022, including $7B on originals

Amazon is working on a standalone app for sports content, new report claims

Amazon is developing a standalone app for watching sports, according to a new report from The Information. The move signals Amazon’s continued push toward investing in Prime Video and live sports content. If released, the standalone app would better highlight Amazon’s sports content, which is currently included in the company’s main Prime Video platform.
The report comes as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently called live sports “a unique asset” that Amazon will continue to invest in. Amazon’s current live sports offerings include exclusive rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, along with some Premier League soccer matches and Yankees baseball games. Amazon has also invested in other sports content to complement the live games, as the company launched original sports talk shows on both Prime Video and its ad-supported streaming service Freevee.
It’s unknown when Amazon plans to launch the standalone sports app. It’s also possible that the company may decide to shelve the plans altogether.
Amazon did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Amazon’s plans for a standalone sports app suggest that the company is exploring new ways to tap its live sports investments into additional revenue streams. Considering the steep costs of streaming rights, it wouldn’t be surprising if the company plans to charge a separate subscription fee for sports content with this standalone app. It’s also possible that Amazon may decide to offer a separate subscription tier that includes its sports content.
The new report comes as Amazon has been reviewing parts of its unprofitable divisions, which led to the elimination of numerous roles. Even amid these cost-cutting efforts, Amazon appears to be committed to building out Prime Video and its live sports streaming content.
Amazon isn’t the only major company looking to continue investing in live sports content, as the company faces increasing competition from other tech giants who have also inked sports streaming deals. Last week, Google’s YouTube secured the NFL Sunday Ticket in a landmark streaming deal. On the other hand, Apple has gained the rights to Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games.

YouTube secures NFL Sunday Ticket in landmark streaming deal

Amazon is working on a standalone app for sports content, new report claims by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
Amazon is working on a standalone app for sports content, new report claims

Amazon adds free music videos, viral videos and more ad-supported content to Fire TV

Amazon has announced that Fire TV users in the U.S. can now watch tens of thousands of music videos from major and independent labels for free. No downloads, fees or subscriptions are required to watch the music videos. The ad-supported music videos will be available from artists on the Billboard Hot 100, including Taylor Swift, Drake, Harry Styles and Lizzo, as well as a catalog of classics from different genres. The company says new content will be added daily.
Fire TV customers can find personalized recommendations based on their likes and viewing history, create their own mixes or choose from pre-made playlists, such as Top Holiday Hits, Best of 2022 Recap and Country Today. Users have unlimited music video skips and also have the option to play a continuous stream of similar music videos.
You can access the music videos by pressing the voice control on the Fire TV remote and saying “Alexa, find Music Videos.” Or, you can search “Music Videos” in the Appstore then click the “Music Videos on Fire TV.” From there, you need to click “get” app to download. When the download is complete, you can select “open” to access the free music videos.
In addition to music videos, Fire TV customers will now have access to additional ad-supported content, such as business and finance news from Bloomberg, The Street, CNBC and others. Users will also get access to entertainment news from brands like E! News and Mixible. In addition, customers can watch game previews and trailers, gaming news, developer interviews, how to’s, esports and more from providers including IGN, ESTV and Crown Channel. Last, users can watch viral videos from Always Funny Videos, FailArmy, People Are Awesome and The Pet Collective.
You can access the new additional free content by navigating to the “Home” icon on the Fire TV navigation bar, or by pressing the “Home” button on the Alexa Voice remote. Then, you need to scroll down to “Business & Finance News”, “Entertainment News” or “Gaming News & Esports.”
The announcement comes a few months after Amazon added free movie trailers, lifestyle content, sports highlights and more to Fire TV. Given that more viewers are gravitating to free and ad-supported content as streaming subscription prices continue to increase, it makes sense for Amazon to add more free content to Fire TV.

Amazon adds free movie trailers, lifestyle content, sports highlights and more to Fire TV

Amazon adds free music videos, viral videos and more ad-supported content to Fire TV by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
Amazon adds free music videos, viral videos and more ad-supported content to Fire TV

Daily Crunch: Snap lays off one-fifth of its workforce after missing revenue and growth targets

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Midweek? More like mid-weak! Okay, terrible pun, but we’re a little low energy in this heat wave today, so it kinda made sense.
Oh! And good news, btw, we’re offering 15% off Disrupt tickets (excluding online or expo tickets) for you, our trusty Daily Crunch readers. Use promo code “DC” to claim your discount!
See you tomorrow!  — Christine and Haje
The TechCrunch Top 3
Slumdog $5-illonnaire: Landa is the latest startup to attract venture capital, in this case $33 million, to democratize real estate ownership, Mary Ann writes. Its approach enables people to invest in the real estate sector, which is known for providing generational wealth, but in a less expensive, more fractional way, and in some cases, for as little as $5 initially.
Snap, crackle and . . . fizzle: Despite the myriad of news and new revenue streams we’ve reported about Snap right here in this newsletter, Evan Spiegel said the words no tech employee wants to hear right now: “restructuring our business.” Amanda reports that this unfortunately means cutting 20% of staff.
Obstacles abroad: Amazon faces some tough competition in India, and Manish reports that has presented some challenges in the e-commerce giant’s ability to gain a more prominent foothold in the country.
Startups and VC
This week, Haje went deep with a founder who’s building digital license plates. He mused that building an easy-to-copy hardware product in an incredibly tightly regulated industry where winner-takes-all would be an utter nightmare, but when it works, it works, and it’s fascinating to see Reviver build a company, one license plate at the time.
Populus, the San Francisco–based transportation data startup, got its start as shared scooter mania took hold and cities tried to make sense of how infrastructure was being used by fleets of tiny vehicles. Now, Populus co-founder and CEO Regina Clewlow is repositioning the company to take advantage of another hot opportunity: curbs and congestion, Rebecca writes. It’s a really good read from the TechCrunch transportation desk with an undertone of “the power of great pivots.”
Raisin’ money, raisin’ hell:
Looking beyond the matrix: Ron reports on CodeSee’s latest product, which helps organizations visualize their code base.
Turning coaching into a team sport: Natasha M reports that the founder of Human Q disagrees with some of the biggest and most valuable competitors out there. Instead of one-to-one coaching, Human Q wants to make group coaching an impactful alternative. This founder wants to take on the biggest coaching startups with a group-focused approach.
Stretching the chains: Supply chain firm NFI inks a $10 million deal to deploy Boston Dynamics’ Stretch robots, reports Brian.
Fintech, that’s like fly-fishing, right?: Christine reports that Solid raised a $63 million Series B round of funding to continue providing its fintech-as-a-service offering for companies wanting to launch and scale their own fintech products. 
Like twitch3: Rita reports that Stacked raised $13 million to be the Twitch for web3 gamers.
 Crafting a XaaS customer success strategy that drives growth
Image Credits: THEPALMER (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Giving users better service than they expected could literally save a software startup. In one study, companies that spent 10% of yearly revenue on customer success attained peak net recurring revenue.
“Companies mostly deploy two or more customer success archetypes,” according to TC+ contributors Rachel Parrinello and John Stamos. “They usually vary by customer segment, business versus technical focus and sales motion focus: adopt, renew, upsell and cross-sell.”
If you’re interested in optimizing revenue through CS, read the rest for a full overview of job design methodology, because “companies should not design their customer success roles in a vacuum.”

Crafting a XaaS customer success strategy that drives growth

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
Big Tech Inc.
Social media and privacy don’t often go hand in hand, especially when children can see a lot on the internet already. Twitter got caught up in this when it reportedly tried to monetize adult content in an effort to compete with OnlyFans. It later scrapped the program when it was found that its system couldn’t “detect child sexual abuse material and non-consensual nudity at scale,” Amanda writes. Meanwhile, California lawmakers wasted no time moving ahead to put in place statewide online privacy protections for children where there are none at the federal level, Taylor reports.
Stepping on the gas, er, EV pedal: Toyota is accelerating its investment in U.S. electric vehicles, and will park some $3.8 billion into that initiative, up from an initial $1.3 billion, Jaclyn writes.
Cashing in on NFTs: Event organizers working with Ticketmaster can now issue NFTs tied to tickets on Flow, Ivan reports.
It’s almost fall and that means another Apple event: Brian has the skinny on all the things you should know about Apple’s iPhone 14 event on September 7.
New satellite on the block: Royal Caribbean is going “all-in on satellite service,” and will outfit its fleet of ships with Starlink internet, Devin writes.

Daily Crunch: Snap lays off one-fifth of its workforce after missing revenue and growth targets

Amazon launches AWS Private 5G so companies can build their own 4G mobile networks

Amazon’s cash-cow cloud division AWS has launched a new service designed to help companies deploy their own private 5G networks — eventually, at least.
AWS first announced AWS Private 5G in early preview late last year, but it’s now officially available to AWS customers starting in its U.S. East (Ohio), U.S. East (N. Virginia), and U.S. West (Oregon) regions, with plans to roll it out internationally “in the near future.”
But — and this is a big “but” — despite its name, AWS Private 5G currently only supports 4G LTE.
“It supports 4G LTE today, and will support 5G in the future, both of which give you a consistent, predictable level of throughput with ultra low latency,” AWS chief evangelist Jeff Barr wrote in a blog post.
With AWS Private 5G, companies order the hardware (a radio unit) and a bunch of special SIM cards directly from AWS, and AWS then provides all the necessary software and APIs (application programming interfaces) to enable businesses to set up their own private mobile network on-site. This incorporates the AWS Management Console, through which users specify where they want to build their network and their required capacity, with AWS automating the network setup and deployment once the customer has activated their small-cell radio units.
Crucially, the AWS-managed network infrastructure plays nicely with other AWS services, including its Identity and Access Management (IAM) offering, which enables IT to control who and what devices can access the private network. AWS Private 5G also channels into Amazon’s CloudWatch observability service, which provides insights into the network’s health, among other useful data points.
In terms of costs, AWS charges $10 per hour for each radio unit it installs, with each radio supporting speeds of 150 Mbps across up to 100 SIMs (i.e. individual devices). On top of that, AWS will bill for all data that transfers outwards to the internet, charged at Amazon’s usual EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) rates.
So in effect, Amazon is promising industries — such as smart factories or other locations (remote or otherwise) with high-bandwidth requirements — instant, localized 5G, while shoehorning them onto its sticky cloud infrastructure where the usual fees apply.
Public vs private
It’s clear that 5G has the potential to transform many industries, and will be the bedrock of everything from robotics and self-driving cars to virtual reality and beyond. But public 5G networks, which is what most consumers with 5G-enabled devices currently rely on, have limited coverage and the bandwidth may be shared by million of users. On top of that, companies have little control over the network, even if their premises are within range of the network. And that is why private 5G networks are an appealing proposition, particularly for enterprises with mission-critical applications that demand low-latency data transfers round-the-clock.
AWS Private 5G uses Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), a shared 3.5 GHz wireless spectrum that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized in early 2020 for use in commercial environments, as it had previously been reserved for the Department of Defense (DoD). So this update essentially opened CBRS to myriad use-cases, including businesses looking to build new 5G services, or extend existing 4G/LTE services.
At the same time, the FCC announced key Spectrum Access System (SAS) administrators who would be authorized to manage wireless communications in the CBRS band, a process effectively designed to protect “high priority” users (e.g. the DoD) from interference. Any device connecting to the CBRS spectrum needs authorization from a SAS administrator, which today includes Google, Sony, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Key Bridge Wireless and Amdocs.

How your company can adopt a usage-based business model like AWS

And this is a key component of the new AWS Private 5G service — it’s fully-integrated into the SAS administration process, with AWS managing everything on behalf of the customer, including taking on responsibility for interference issues among other troubleshooting tidbits relating to spectrum access.
So Amazon’s new private 5G offering is perhaps something of a misnomer as it stands today, insofar as it currently only supports 4G LTE. But the OnGo Alliance (then called the CBRS Alliance) completed its 5G specs for CBRS more than two years ago now, and the intervening months have been about setting the foundation to enable fully commercial 5G services — just yesterday, Samsung Electronics America announced a partnership with Kajeet to deploy a new private 5G network on CBRS.
But while “AWS Private 5G” is a nod to what it’s built to support in the future, the current branding may cause some consternation among interested parties seeking local 5G deployments today.
Amazon launches AWS Private 5G so companies can build their own 4G mobile networks