Amazon detailed the costs of its content business during its\u00a0fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, citing that its content expenses jumped to $16.6 billion in 2022, a 28% increase from $13 billion in 2021.
\nAccording 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.
\nWhile 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 \u201cThe Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,\u201d the most-watched Amazon original series worldwide, cost more than $500 million.
\nStreaming 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 \u2014 around $11 billion.) Paramount+ also plans to increase streaming content spending to $6 billion by 2024, it recently said.
\nAmazon didn’t report subscriber numbers for its streaming business. However, Olsavsky boasted during the earnings call that its Prime Video content is a \u201cstrong driver of Prime member engagement and new Prime member acquisition.\u201d
\nFor instance, \u201cThe Rings of Power\u201d was viewed by more than 100 million global viewers with over 24 billion minutes streamed. The company added that, during its launch window, \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d series helped drive more Prime sign-ups worldwide than any previous Prime Video content.
\nAmazon 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.
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
Amazon Prime Video’s \u2018Thursday Night Football’ starts strong with 15.3 million viewers<\/p>\n
Other original content added to the streamer in 2022 includes \u201cMy Policeman\u201d starring Harry Styles, the third season of \u201cJack Ryan\u201d and the Western drama \u201cThe English,\u201d among others.
\nAmazon is also benefiting from its 2022 acquisition of MGM for $8.5 billion. The company noted that \u201cWednesday,\u201d the MGM-produced series on Netflix, premiered at No. 1 on Nielsen’s weekly streaming charts and earned two Golden Globe nominations. In December, \u201cWednesday\u201d 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.
\nPrime 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.<\/p>\n
HBO Max comes back to Prime Video Channels<\/p>\n